DRUGS: NOTHING OUT OF THE WAY. THE STATE HAS ASSASSINATED A YOUNG MAN FOR ONE GRAM OF HASHISH. 40 DAYS HAVE PASSED SINCE THE DEATH OF VLADIMIR GOLUBNICHII

Moscow, March 13, 1998. 40 days have passed since the death of Vladimir Golubnichii in a reformatory camp. His name does not mean anything to people, excepting to his friends and his family. He was neither a famous corruptionist, nor a leader of a criminal band, nor, on the contrary, a courageous fighter for human rights, fallen in the struggle for liberty with the regime. Nothing out of the way.

Last August Vladimir Golubnichii, 24, was stopped by militiamen at an underground station and searched. In his pockets the militiaman found 1 (one) gram of hashish. The trial that took place soon, one of usual routine trials that did not attract anybody's attention, sentenced him to 6 months of imprisonment for "keeping big quantity of drugs". Nothing out of the way. On February 1, 1998, several days before his discharge, Vladimir Golubnichii died in the prison hospital. The official diagnosis was "coronary deficiency". In the coffin he had so much make up on, that one could hardly recognise him. Nobody knows what really happened in the camp. Unfortunately, in the present-day Russia this is not out of the way too.

The state has assassinated its 24-old citizen. It has killed him for one gram of a substance that does less harm than tobacco and alcohol. However, the state considers it a prohibited substance and allows the maffias to conserve the monopoly for selling it.

Thousands, or, may be, hundreds of thousands citizens fill Russian prisons (as well as prisons of other countries) just because they allow themselves to consume the prohibited cannabis. No less than nearly 40 millions people are forced every day to contribute to the prosperity of the narcomafia when they buy hashish and marijuana at the black market. Nothing out of the way?

Radical Party