SPEECH BY GEORGES PAPANDREOU, GREEK MINISTER FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Brussels 11th Dec 1997.

First of all let me thank you for this invitation to this public debate. I am very happy to be here.

One of the primary reasons for my being here is to do one very important thing - to "decriminalise" the public debate itself on the drugs issue. There is no one in a democracy that has a monopoly on the right of ideas, proposals or solutions and so I think that those who bring in controversial and radical positions must be respected, in particular for their courage to stick their necks out and take a strong position in searching for new solutions.

As Minister of European Affairs, I can officially say that my government and I believe that we must open up the debate in Europe much more widely on this issue and therefore move in a direction where we create a more coherent and humane European policy on the drugs issues, with better results.

Now let me say a few words on my own personal opinion, that some of the government which I represent share, and some of the Greek Parliament share, while others do not. I am here also because I believe that we must move towards looking for new measures, since up to now we have not solved the drug problem simply by using force. I think the question of decriminalisation, although it may not be a panacea, a solution to everything, it certainly can help. But it needs to be complemented by information and education. The policy of criminalising users has failed and it has created very important and deep problems in our societies. I will start with the political problems: they have created an underworld with great sums of money which are undermining our democratic institutions, be it the police force, the judges or the politicians themselves. The social problems which are created when we make criminals out of otherwise innocent users of drugs, by sending them to become the unwilling army of the underworld and havin

g to tradeand sometimes traffick drugs in an illegal world. We also create a great deal of marginalisation of a large part of our community. The third problem is the health and personal safety problem. There is no control of these issues as we have criminalised a large part of the world, we have tried to block them out of our minds and in that way we cannot control what is sold, how it is delivered or what or how it is consumed with many ramifications: many diseases and very often death, as no one can be helped.

As a father to a son of 15, I would be much happier to know that a regulated situation existed, if my child, like a lot of children do, decided to use drugs. I would of course not be in favour of his decision, but would prefer to know that drugs were being carefully monitored, controlled and regulated rather than in the hands of some criminals. So that I myself feel that in breaking this criminal circuit, we have to move towards decriminalisation of cannabis - of soft drugs- and also find ways to decriminalise users of hard drug. We need to therefore find ways of administering either methadone or the drug itself, as is done in some countries now such as Switzerland, to those who are addicted to hard drugs.

This, then, is my personal opinion and I believe that this is an opinion which more and more politicians are beginning to share. We must work in this direction within Europe. There is certainly a question of international law also but I think that before we get to changing international treaties there is still much we can do at the level both as a nation and as the European Union.

Thank you.