CORA ON THE PARDON FOR CINZIA MERLONGHI
CORA's reaction is favorable to the pardon for Cinzia Merlonghi. However, the other hundreds of ex-drug addicts over which the menace of "residual penalty" hang must not be forgotten. CORA is pleading the government to adopt the alternative measures of de-penalizing personal consumption or group consumption and the abolition of administrative sanctions in order to prevent these people from getting sent back to jail.
CORA'S OPEN LETTER TO "LA REPUBBLICA"
CORA replies to the article "Free drugs, faint illusions" written by economist Marcello De Cecco. De Cecco rightfully referred to "drugs" as "merchandise", subject to the laws of economics, but then fell back on standard prohibitionist doctrine. Legalization is certainly not a cure-all, but it could for the first time give the government a real tool in fighting the narco-mafias, cutting off a great deal of the capital with which they build their fortunes.
DRUG ADDICTION: CORRECTIVE LAW APPROVED
The corrective law that should counteract the negative effects produced by the 19 law ordinances (all of them expired) decreed during the last four years by five governments is now active. CORA's evaluation of the law is negative in that many negative aspects of these ordinances remain in act: the prohibition of the therapeutic experimentation of heroine; SERT's (Public Health) monopoly on methadone therapy; the temporary registration of therapeutic communities and despite objections from the "Corte dei Conti as to the poor administration of the funds, the anticipation of anti-drug financing remains at 80%, whereas in the origin it was set at 50%.
DRUG ADDICTION: THE ANNUAL REPORT HAS NOT BEEN PRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT
The Prodi government did not present to Parliament by March 31 the Annual Report on Drug Addiction, as prescribed by the anti-drug law, a deadline respected all previous governments. CORA underlines that the active position promised by the government during the National Conference on Drugs at Naples was very different . It can only be hoped that the delay will be used to help prepare a thorough report on the controls carried out on anti-drug financing.
FOR THE FIRST TIME, AFTER FOUR YEARS, A JUDGE ENFORCES THE LAW
On page 47,the last one, of April 11's "Corriere della Sera", one can read the piece of news that finally a Milanese judge- the first after four years- has decided to enforce the law the way it had been modified by the 1993 referendum promoted by CORA. The 1993 referendum de-penalized the personal consumption of illegal drugs. A woman was absolved after being accused of cultivating a couple of cannabis plants on her balcony for personal use.
WORLD NEWS
CHINA
The Chinese police has started to force drug addicts to obligatory disintoxication treatment.
For the moment there are 104 recovered drug addicts in specialized centers; for the year 1996 the official numbers indicate 2700 drug addicts in Beijing, but the real numbers are probably much higher.
(EL PAIS 03/04)
GREAT BRITAIN
The Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics has launched an advertising campaign for the promotion of the therapeutic use of cannabis for the treatment of arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Legalization of the plant is requested, given that physicians can legally prescribe heroine substitutes.
(THE TIMES 04/04)
ITALY
According to official statistics, the confiscation of marijuana from Albanian citizens has significantly increased between '95 and '96. It seems that the Albanian drug dealers treat the cannabis plants with ammonia in order to increase their harvests, but, by doing that, the toxicity of the end product increases as well.
(LA STAMPA 05/04)
USA
U.S. government's position towards Mexico is becoming more and more delicate. While from Switzerland new revelations are arriving about the involvement of the Salinas family in cocaine traffic and Clinton is preparing his visit to Mexico, the Spanish government is officially supporting Mexico against U.S. claims for "decertification".
(EL PAIS 02-04/04, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 03/04, THE TIMES 04/04)
USA
The New York Times indicate among the supporters of Clinton's re-election campaign the notorious cocaine smuggler, George Cabrera. In fact, a 20,000 dollar check bearing the boss' signature had been sent to the Democratic Party; but, according to the White House, it had never been cashed.
(IL GIORNALE, IL MESSAGGERO, LA REPUBBLICA 05/04)
EUROPE
During the last few weeks, various positions in the debate about cannabis legalization were to be noted within the European press. In Italy, the press is giving credit to the opinion of some physicians and an economist, according to whom the legalization of cannabis would not reduce criminality. In France, the press has published the declaration the director of Paris' Centre Marmottan in favor of legalization.
(LE MONDE 06/04, CORSERA, LA REPUBBLICA 07/04, PANORAMA 17/04)
WORLDWIDE
The richer we get the more we look for ways of altering our temperaments. We say 'yes' to drugs, because that's what the Western governments want. We are encouraged in fact use alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, melatonin lofepramine, fluoxetine...
(FINANCIAL TIMES 06/04)
SPAIN
According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, the strong increase in clandestine immigrants from Morocco is a result of the intervention of hashish dealers who use their experience as smugglers to ship the immigrants over the Strait of Gibraltar.
(EL PAIS 07/04)
PORTUGAL
In Lisbon, during a congress on drug traffic and consumption, attended by 200 experts from all over the world, the President of the Portuguese Republic, Jorge Sampaio, declared that the time has come to discuss seriously and without prejudice the "non-prohibition" of drugs
(EL PAIS 07/04)
USA
The war against drugs has not been lost, on the contrary: it is about to be won. With the exception of marijuana abuse among youngsters, general drug abuse is decreasing and today there are 10 million fewer heavy consumers than in 1985. According to A.M. Rosenthal, anti-drug campaigns are therefore useless.
(INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 10/04)
USA
Although 20 billion dollars have been spent in the last 10 years in the fight against illegal drugs, the quantity of heroine and cocaine on the market continues to satisfy the demand of consumers. The best strategy in the war against drug traffic would therefore consist in reducing the internal demand.
(INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 08/04)
COLOMBIA
In Europe, cocaine is the vice of the rich, but in Colombia it is the daily bread for the poor. Now, that Bogota and Washington want to cut off the drug traffic, the Roman Catholic Church is trying to launch the project "Not only Coca", a campaign that hopes to change the habits of the Colombian people.
(L'ESPRESSO 17/04)
MEXICO
Drug production and traffic (mainly heroine and amphetamines) are integrated parts of the Mexican economy. The bosses now have a secret weapon: politics. In fact, the rush towards the prohibited gold is involving large spheres of the nation's political class.
(PANORAMA 17/04)
FRANCE
A Parisian court decided to try in absence Panama's ex-president Manuel Antonio Noriega for white-washing money coming from illegal drug traffic. Noriega, at the moment, is serving a 40 year sentence for illegal drug traffic in a U.S. prison.
(LE MONDE 14/04)
ITALY
According to a professor of Psychological Dynamics of the University of Milan, the widespread use of cannabis among youngsters is a result of bad information given by adults. The risks linked to cannabis abuse have been exaggerated and so the youngsters do not believe what they have been told.
(CORSERA 14/04)
ASIA
The ancient Silk Road, that winds through the territories of the Asian ex-Soviet Republics, is today used by the drug smugglers to bring drugs from Asia to the West. Opium is carried on every thinkable means of transportation : human beings, dogs, false-bottomed cars.
(IL GIORNALE 15/04)
USA
U.S. prohibition has failed. This is made clear by three recent events: the approval, by a large majority, of the referendum for the legalization marijuana for medical use in California and Arizona; the increase of illegal drug abuse among youngsters; the farce of "decertification" of U.S. allies in the war against drugs.
(INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 15/04
FRANCE
Despite the Schengen agreement on the free circulation of persons within the ECC, France will keep its customs control with Belgium. The agreement allows for such a procedure in case of heavy drug traffic.
(DIE PRESSE 02/04)
GERMANY-THE NETHERLANDS
The Dutch military compound at Seedorf in Germany is subject to rigid controls after the discovery of wide spread drug abuse among career soldiers. Apart from defending the image of the Dutch Kingdom, the controls help reduce the traffic of drugs that has increased significantly in the discos of Northern Germany thanks in part to presence of Dutch soldiers.
(SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG 03/04)
THE NETHERLANDS
"The harmless myth is dead...". Even in the tolerant Netherlands there is growing concern about the psychological addiction to cannabis. In Jellinek (near Amsterdam), a treatment center for users of hashish and marijuana who after some years of us feel the need to face life without the use of artificial substances has been operating for several years.
(FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG 07/04)
GERMANY
The German Ecology Party (Die Gruenen) has introduced an "immediate" program for rendering anti-drug policies more humane. They ask that physicians have, in determined cases, the right to prescribe heroine. Their aim is a highly intensive psycho-social assistance and not the simple distribution in order to calm the addict. The party's further goals are to legalize hashish, de-penalize the possession of ecstasy and the de-penalization of the personal use of heavy drugs.
(FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG 11/04)
AUSTRIA
The list of physical damages provoked by ecstasy is getting longer and longer. Viennese physicians have just finished documenting the first case of amnesia due to the abuse of the substance. In "Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry" the case of a 26-year old patient, whose memory was impaired after having taken half a pill of ecstasy during a rave party has been documented
(DER SPIEGEL 14/04)
