>> DECEMBER 10 - 12, 1997, BRUSSELS ANTIPROHIBITIONIST DAYS
Program
Wednesday Dec. 10
- 3:00 p.m.: debate on the parliamentary initiative in Europe with the participation of MPs and MEPs.
- 5:00 p.m.: debate on the strengthening of nonviolent actions and on the European coordination of antiprohibitionists.
- 6:30 p.m.: end of session
Thursday Dec. 11
- 9:00 a.m.: continuation of the debate on nonviolent actions.
- 1:00 p.m.: lunch break
- 3:00 p.m.: public debate "For new policies on drugs".
Participants:
- Marco Pannella
- Emma Bonino, European Commissioner
- George Papandreu, Greek Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs*
- Antonio Almeida Santos, President of the Portuguese Parliament*
- Bernard Kouchner, French Minister of Health*
- Rosie Boycott, "Independent of Sunday", UK
- Franco Corleone, Italian Vice-Minister of Justice*
(*) to be confirmed
Friday, Dec. 12
- 8:30 a.m.: departure from Brussels to Luxembourg for demonstration
- 11:00 a.m.: arrival in Luxembourg in front of the Council of Heads of State and of Prime Ministers of the European Union.
- 2:00 p.m.: end of demonstration
PARTICIPATION FORM
- I will participate in the 2-day meeting yes no
- I will participate in the Luxembourg demonstration yes no
please book me:
a hotel room yes no
a hostel room yes no
for the nights of:
Wednesday yes no
Thursday yes no
Friday yes no
- I will arrive on December at
- I will leave on December at
to be faxed to the following numbers: +32-2-284.91.97, 284.91.98, 230.36.70.
or emailed to: pr.bruxelles@agora.stm.it
for further information please call: +32-2-284.71.98
>> ITALY - CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: NEW DEMONSTRATIONS IN ROME
Sat. Nov. 8 - the "Pannella's List" has again organized an antiprohibitionist demonstration during which some activists have distributed for free, hashish to passersby. Demonstrators confirmed their action to the police that seized them. Among them, Radical Eurodeputies Gianfranco Dell'Alba and Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party. Police have also confiscated some small boxes that looked like painkillers (on which "hashish" and "marijuana" was written) containing antiprohibition leaflets. Wed. Nov. 12 a new CD is scheduled: Secretary of CORA, Eric Picard, Michel Hancisse and Thierry Meyssan, political directors of CORA, and other volunteers will again distribute hashish auto-denouncing themselves.
>> ITALY - RESPONSIBLES OF HASH DISTRIBUTION INTERROGATED
Rome - The police have interrogated antiprohibitionist militants for their actions during a demonstration in Rome last October in Piazza Navona. Rita Bernardini has declared: "I pleaded guilty for my political responsibility of delivering hashish with Marco Pannella and Olivier Dupuis. My decision not to reiterate, for the time being, civil disobedience actions does not mean that I won't be involved in this business in the future".
>> ITALY - CORA: THE FIGHT AGAINST ANTIPROHIBITIONISM IS STARTED
Thanks to the CD of these days the struggle against prohibition is clearly on the right track in courthouses, with the trials for previous CDs. We want to change the laws that regulate drugs. We want the Parliament to discuss our popular bills on the decriminalization and legalization. We want municipalities to experiment controlled distribution of heroin to addicts. We will definitively continue with our Civil disobediences.
>> ITALY - PANNELLA: "DECRIMINALIZATION AS A JURIDICAL 'HYGIENE' MEASURE"
"In an absurd context in which, thanks to the overlapping of norms and laws, is possible to go unpunished for buying and delivering hard drugs, depenalization of cultivation of cannabis for personal use or of gratuitous cession of marijuana and hashish is a measure of juridical HYGIENE. At present time those who give a joint as a present for a friend are sure to face a conviction; those who cultivate marijuana for personal use, unlike those who buy it on the illegal market, are penally punished. It is another demonstration of how prohibition corrupts the law and its respectability"
>> ITALY - ROME LIKE ZURICH: PANNELLA PROPOSES CONTROLLED HEROIN TO SERIOUS ADDICTS IN HIS POLITICAL PLATFORM FOR THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN FOR CITY COUNCIL IN ITALY'S CAPITAL
The Swiss experiment has demonstrated that controlled distribution of heroin allows addicts to change their lives and reduces social and sanitary risks connected to it. So, why not to try the same alternative in Italy, and in its capital in particular? The time has come for making antiprohibition contradictions explode. We should start in Rome with 1,000 heroin addicts that have failed with other rehab programs and could try this new treatment. The Minister of Health has tolerated other questionable methods like UROD in the past, why not try this one already tested with success abroad?
>> ITALY - HEROIN: A THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY SAYS YES TO THE EXPERIMENT
Rome - Doctor Massimo Barra, founder of the oldest rehab community of the city, has declared that he and his colleagues are: "against any form of prohibition of treatments. We should do anything possible for the patience's health keeping in mind the best possible therapy; the illusion of solving the problem simply prohibiting substances has showed its limits. Not such a thing as a incurable addict exists, we are ready to start the experimental distribution of heroin.
>> EUROPE - REPORT ON MINORS' CANNABIS CONSUMPTION
According to the report issued by the Swedish Council together with the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe, in Italy 1 16-years-old out of 5, in the rest of Europe, 1 out of 3, habitually uses "soft drugs". perhaps among youngsters aged 18-25 the percentage is even higher. In 1996, in Italy there have been over 8,456 drug-related police operations and over 12 tons of cannabis derivatives have been confiscated. The report, intended to point out the need to reinforce the arguments of prohibition, clearly shows its failures.
>> BELGIUM - DEMONSTRATION AT THE CONGRESS ON DRUGS POLICIES OF 2000
Nov. 12 - A group of members of CORA has demonstrated outside the building in which a congress "Policies on Drugs for 2000" was held, delivering leaflets that said "prohibition on drugs kills!" "we have failed for 80 years". The meeting was an opportunity fro people active in the field to meet; CORA representatives invited presents to change their approach to the matter advocating new sanitary policies
COLUMBIA
In two out of 10 robberies burundanga, an hypnotic acid is used. The substance is made of scopolamin and benzodiazepine that can be easily found on the market of narcotics. Criminals use it to subdue their victims. Burundanga is put in cakes and drinks.
(CORRIERE DELLA SERA, 30/10)
COLOMBIA
Vice-director of the newspaper "Diario del Sur", Alenjandro Jaramillo, has been murdered by an electric saw and put in a plastic bag. The journalist, 67, was also targeted twice in the past for his reportage on Narco-trafficking.
(IL MESSAGGERO, 02/11)
MEXICO
Mexican Dealers have replaced Colombians in the marketplace of cocaine, marijuana, and other substances. After having corrupted the police, they have now become "the owners" of the South-Eastern Mexican-US border, 3,200 km that are daily flown over by helicopters.
(IHT, 3/11)
ITALY
The Court of Milan has acquitted a young couple that was caught by the police with 220 grams of hashish. The Court's decision decriminalizes therapeutic soft drugs, because the girl had AIDS and demonstrated that she bought the substance for therapeutic use. The physicians that were asked by the Court to give their opinion have confirmed hashish as a medicine for people with HIV/AIDS.
(CORRIERE DELLA SERA, IL MESSAGGERO, 8/11)
THE NETHERLANDS
In May 1998, the municipalities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam will start the experiment of the distribution of heroin to a group of serious addicts. Dutch authorities intend to verify if this project can ameliorate social life of heroin addicts and reduce criminality.
(EL PAIS, 9/11)
SPAIN
The "Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas" of 1996, a report on the consumption of substances included for tobacco and sedatives, shows a big increase in the consumption of cocaine and its sanitary aspects. If compared to 1995, cocaine addicts that have decided to join rehab programs have increased by 46.6%. Different is the situation about the consolidated trend in the consumption of chemical drugs and psychotropic substances among youths.
(EL PAIS, 4/11)
FRANCE
At the yearly Conference of ECDP (European Cities in Drugs Policies), Minister of Health, Bernard Kouchner, issued a declaration in favor of the revision of the 1970 law on drugs. This declaration has reinvigorating the debate on the legalization. Minister Kouchner hasn't expressed any desire to exclude cannabis from the list of narcotics.
(LE FIGARO, 29/10)
EUROPEAN UNION
The Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has approved a recommendation directed to EU Member States in which it is explicitly asked the legalization of soft drugs and the regulation of production and selling of cannabis derivatives. The document that will be discussed at the plenary session, was presented by the Radical Group to the European Parliament.
(LA REPUBBLICA, 4/11)
GREAT BRITAIN
"The Substance of Youth" issued by the Joseph Rowntree Trust shows how the consumption of drugs is no longer a behavior of losers or rebels, but it is widespread among any youngsters. Many of them, between 16 and 24 are recreational users and socially integrated. They are aware of the characteristics of the substances.
(THE TIMES, 5/11)
ITALY
A study carried on in 26 countries show that in Italy 1 every 4 teenagers uses soft drugs. Youngsters aged 16 are precociously into hemp than their fellow Europeans. Girls are more into tranquilizers and sedatives.
GERMANY
Frankfurt - The association JJ that takes care of troubled youth, has established a drug-support-webpage, the first for Germany. The target is made of people working in advertising, media and in electronics in general that are more exposed to cocaine and chemical drugs. "From Mon to Fri no Taboos" recites the webpage where one can talk about amphetamines, alcohol, and related treatments.
(SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, 30/10)
GERMANY
Christian associations are against the controlled distribution of heroin and methadone. In a document endorsed by 20 organizations of 12 different countries from Europe and Asia, it is stated that certain programs do not underlines the positive sides of a life without drugs.
(FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, 30/10)
EU
In The report of the European Observatory on drugs and addiction is stated that cannabis remains the most used and the most easy to buy substance among the EU. Nevertheless in recent years there has been an increase in the use of chemical drugs MDMA, LSD and amphetamine especially among youngsters. The risk of hepatitis C is also increasing.
(EL PAIS, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, LE MONDE, NEUE ZUERCHER ZEITUNG, O5/11)
GERMANY
Hamburg - Despite their success in Frankfurt, rehab centers experience difficulties liked to conflicts between the judiciary and prosecutors. The first consider appropriate for a drug-addict to be treated in public health-centers, the majority of the prosecutors consider addicts violators of laws on narcotics. There may be some room for compromise, the two categories will set up a model-trial.
(SUDDEUTCHE ZEITUNG, 6/11)
VIETNAM
A physician has recently invented natural potion against addiction from opium and cocaine that is prescribed to addicts that are treated in clinics. The medicine is raising researchers' curiosity outside Vietnam. It is a mixture of leaves, radish and alcohol that is able to eliminate addiction in the short term. The product has not been scientifically tested for its possible collateral effects.
(TIME, 17/11)
BOLIVIA
The use of the coca leaf by pesants helps them working in altitude. According to a study issued by some French and Bolivian researchers. The use is a millenarian tradition helps blood circulation, increases the number of red corpuscles and is active on some neuromediators, like cathecolamine.
(LE NOVEL OBSERVATEUR, 12/11)
ITALY
Radical leader, Marco Pannella is continuing the antiprohibition struggle with the same means but with new objectives. After having re-launched his provocation giving hashish for free in Rome in Piazza Navona, Radicals are now proposing the distribution of heroin to serious addicts. The proposal has divided the public opinion.
(IL MESSAGGERO, 9-11/11, CORSERA, 9-11/11, IL GIORNALE, 10-11/11, LA REPUBBLICA, LA STAMPA, 11/11 THE EUROPEAN, 12/11)
USA
According to a White House's report, in 1995, Americans have spent over $57 billion for drugs. Two thirds of which for cocaine only. The same amount of money could have served for 84 billion liters of milk for staving children.
