Lidove noviny, a major liberal daily in the Czech Republic, informs in a large article on its last page about the visit and views of CoRA President Carla Rossi - under the title "Marijuana is like alcohol: The President of CoRA, an Italian organization, would legalize soft drugs".

The article appears in the context of a debate whether the mere possession of drugs should be penalized. In the beginning, the author reminds that the current law does not penalize mere possession of any drug unless the intention to sell it can be proved. While the Government apparently intends to make ALL possession illegal, other participants of the debate are in favour of establishing legal limits for the possession of each drug, i.e. maximum doses allowed for personal use.

Rossi is quoted as saying that in 1990, a severe law was passed in Italy which made all possession of drugs illegal, whether soft or hard. "Therefore very young people who just had some soft drugs on them for personal use ended in prison," says Rossi, "and several people committed suicide in despair. As a result of these tragedies, 55 percent of Italians decided in last year's referendum to make the anti-drug law less strict. That is, if police find on you less than a tenth of a gram of a hard drug or a few grams of a soft one, they leave you alone, and only if you exceed the set limit you go to court." According to Rossi, some 150 thousand Italians use hard drugs and some 2 million use hard ones - only 6 percent of soft-drug users eventually try hard drugs, and this, says Rossi, is caused above all by the fact that both sorts are sold by the same dealers. "It happens, for instance, that the consumer wants just soft drugs but the dealer offers him heroin for a low price to get him hooked." The article quotes

Rossi as saying that marijuana should be legalized as it is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.