CONFERENCE OF THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: SPEECH OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY

Delivered by Gianfranco Dell'Alba, MEP

London, December 11, 1997

Dear Friends,

It is with real pleasure that I accepted the offer from the Independent on Sunday, and the other organisers, to come to speak at your debate on the legalization of Cannabis. I strongly welcome Rosie Boycotts initiative. It has taken me 20 years of hard work on this issue to get to this magnificent moment where I am able to speak before you. I am extremely glad to see that such a campaign here in Britain has brought so many of you here today, be it to show your support or possibly to fight against this initiative. In any case, the issue of the Cannabis leaf has been raised.

At this very moment in Brussels, as you may know, the Transnational Radical Party (a political transnational NGO) and its federated association Radical Antiprohibitionist Coordination (CO.R.A) are holding a Conference on drugs and antiprohibitionism in the European Parliament; I came here to bring you the greetings of my friends.

So you might say, who on earth are you? We are the Transnational Radical Party, a transnational NGO which fights mainly for human rights, such as the abolition of the worldwide death penalty and the establishment of a permanent criminal court at the UN level, to name but two. However, we have also been particularly engaged in the fight for the legalisation of drugs worldwide since 1988. We lead our campaigns on two levels: both in the institutions (national and European parliaments) and on the streets by organising meetings and peaceful demonstrations.

As regards the issue of drugs legalisation: in the institutions we have led an on-going fight to reform drug laws and policies, and in particular the legalisation of cannabis (which we consider a non-drug), the decriminalisation of the consumption and production of drugs, the support and extension of harm reduction policies, the reform of the International Conventions on drugs.

We have, with the International Antiprohibitionist League and the CORA, created the most important antiprohibitionist lobby group in the world and therefore wonder why your newspaper, as far as we know, have never mentioned us.

We have had considerable success in collecting signatures in the European Parliament to support a report on the harmonisation of drug policies and laws within the EU in an antiprohibitionist sense. One month ago the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament approved this report, which we hope will in turn be supported by the whole of the European Parliament. Our aim is to organise support for these kind of actions more often in national parliaments. For this reason we are working to organize a network of national parlamentarians across Europe.

In Italy, the radical antiprohibitionist activists have thrice gathered 500,000 signatures in order to have a national referendum on drugs. We finally had one in 1993, when 53% of the population voted in favour of decriminalisation of the consumption of cannabis and for therapeutic freedom in the treatment of drug addiction.

On the streets we organise civil disobedience campaigns. After having tried all other legal means of changing the drug laws and policies, we decided to break the law, and accept the consequences of these illegal acts, in order to demonstrate just how unjust and ridiculous these rules are, thereby raising political and public attention towards these matters.

I have participated in one of ten civil disobedience demonstrations: I first handed out some of the most dangerous drugs on the market which kill millions of people every year: cigarettes and whisky, and then distributed small packets of cannabis like these - (shows the packets of marijuana) - to the people of Rome, and it was for this final act, that I was arrested. I was considered a drug trafficker, even though I was actually distributing the same quantity of cannabis that is legally allowed for personal consumption. Marco Pannella, our nonviolent antiprohibitionist leader, has participated in most public distributions, and has, as a result, already been condemned to 8 months imprisonment.

The analysis we come to, on the effects of drug prohibition is very easy and clear: it is prohibition, and not the drug in itself, that is the main problem. The prohibition of drugs feeds the Mafia monopoly of drug production, trafficking and distribution. The enormous amount of money that international crime draws is used to corrupt politicians, judges, policemen, the media, and so on. The prohibition of drugs causes the margination of drug addicts, who are left in the hands of criminality and of their problems.

Legalisation of drugs would radically help to cope with the drugs problem: fist of all it would be a powerful mean to rid the drugs market of the Mafia (and being Italian I am extremely sensitive to strong Mafia influence), solving the issues of micro- and macro criminality. Secondly, drug addicts would be treated properly, according to their needs. Thus, important resources and energy would be turned towards real criminal activities and not to finding the unlucky consumer of the day.

If we agree on these issues, the next problem is how to get to legalisation of drugs. What we need is a transnational campaign on it. Our aim is to have the same law on legalisation of drugs tabled in all national parliaments (at least in the countries of the European Union), and of course to see it passed in all of them.

The impression we have is that the public is supportive of a new and different approach to drugs: the referendums in Italy and Switzerland are proof of this; politicians are also aware of this (even if they choose to ignore it), and also in the institutions some scope has been created where a review of laws and policies of drug laws can start. The example of the Netherlands, of the new projects presented in Belgium and Luxembourg, the vote in the EP committee are clear signs of an evolution.

This afternoon in Brussels, CORA and Transnational Radical Party activists will have the pleasure to discuss these items with the Commissioner Emma Bonino, with Mr Papandreou, Minister of Greece, with Mr Corleone, Minister of Italy, with European MPs and national MPs that came to our meeting to plan a transnational antiprohibitionist campaign, in the institutions and on the streets.

What I propose to all antiprohibitionists, to all the people who think that what we need is legalisation of drugs to stop the Mafia, to stop the rising production, trafficking and consumptionof drugs; to stop the overcrowding of jails, to stop the waste of economical and human resources in the fight against drugs, to stop the massacre of drug addicts left to their own marginalisation, their isolation, the risks of altered drugs, AIDS ..., what we propose to all of you is to join a transnational campaign to legalise drugs, in the institutions through institutional means and on the streets through nonviolent means such as civil disobedience.

Thus, I think that your very important campaign should be called legalize cannabis and not decriminalise cannabis, in order to avoid repeating the disaster of the Spanish experience and to keep the youth of this country far from the black market and from the adulterated drugs inherent in this. Decriminalisation means that drugs are tolerated by the authorities, but does not mean that there is any follow-up to all the related issues stemming from drugs.

Hoping to share with you these convinctions and plans for the future, I hope that this fight goes well.