MILITANTS OF THE RADICAL PARTY HOLD A STREET REFERENDUM ON DRUGS: THE MAJORITY IS FOR THE LEGALISATION OF CANNABIS, AGAINST PERSECUTION FOR THE CONSUMPTION OF DRUGS AND FOR PRESCRIPTION OF HEROIN TO DRUG-ADDICTS UNDER MEDICAL CONTROL.

DECLARATION OF NIKOLAJ KHRAMOV, CO-ORDINATOR OF THE RADICAL PARTY IN RUSSIA

Moscow, June 12, 1998. The World days against the war with drugs concluded on June 10 in more than 50 cities all around the world. They were organised by the World coalition for an alternative to the war with drugs, that unites more than 100 non-government organisations from different countries (including the Transnational Radical Party), and were timed to the special session of the UN General Assembly on drugs (New-York, June 8-10).

The "street referendum" of yesterday is the last of a series of actions that were hold in Moscow for this campaign: press-conference of June 5; collection of signatures near the legation of the UN on June 8; rallies and civil disobedience actions on June 9.

Militants of the Radical Party organised in Pushkin square a kind of polling station with ballot-papers and boxes. The passers-by were asked to answer (yes/no) three questions:

1. Do you support the legalisation of production, selling and consumption of cannabis and its derivatives (hashish, marijuana) and the proposal to set for these substances regulating rules similar to those that already exist for strong alcoholic drinks, taking into consideration that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco?

2. Do you support the abolition of criminal and administrative amenability for the individual consumption of any substance and for offences concerning individual consumption (acquisition, keeping and transporting drugs not for sale)?

3. Do you support the proposal to carry out an experiment in imitation of Switzerland and prescribe heroin under medical control to out-patients with heroin dependence in order to deliver them from the necessity to buy prohibited drugs from underground drug-sellers?

In three hours 257 people participated in our referendum. There were 149 "yes" (57,98%) and 107 "no" (41,63% ) answers to the first question (legalisation of marijuana and hashish), 1 ballot paper was not valid (0,39%). There were 140 "yes" (54,47%) and 113 "no" (43,97%) answers to the second question (abolishing amenability for the consumption of drugs), 4 ballot-papers were not valid (1,56%). Muscovites were particularly unanimous in answering the last question (controlled distribution of heroin among drug-addicts): 176 people "for" the Swiss experience (68,58%), 73 votes "against" (28,40%), 8 non valid ballot-papers (3,11%). The age of participants in referendum varied from 16 till 72.

Nikolaj Khramov, Russian co-ordinator of the Transnational Radical Party, commented upon the results of the referendum:

``Certainly, it was not a sociological inquest, carried out according to all the rules, as it were in case of the last year "street referendum" on the abolition of levy. However, this original street inquest allows us to understand the point of view of the so-called "common people". By the way, the results of our referendum on levy coincided with the results of the public opinion poll, carried out in the same period by the VTSIOM (All-Russia Centre for the Study of Public Opinion) (with difference of 1-2%). It could be very interesting to know the results of the sociological inquests on drugs, carried out either by VTSIOM or by "Itogy" programme (NTV) that organised weekly "telephone vote". Unfortunately, as far as I know, in our country there have never been a sociological inquest on legalisation of drugs...

The results of our "street referendum" give us hopes. They allow us to come to some important political conclusions.

The first, general, conclusion. It is evident that the Russians are informed about the problem of drugs, they understand its difficulty, they have the same common sense and humanism as other people - Italian, Swiss or Holland. Thus, we deliver a blow to the myth that "our people are not ready" for discussing the problem of legalisation of prohibited substances. As in many similar cases, common people have much more common sense and sober understanding of the situation, than our cynical politicians, many of whom support antiprohibitionists proposal in private and, at the same time, in public are afraid to drop a hint of the possibility of legalisation fearing that "the electorate will not approve it".

The second, concrete, conclusion. We will prepare as soon as possible and present to the government of Moscow official proposals concerning the organisation in our city - as in 18 of 22 cantons of Switzerland - of an experimental project for prescription of heroin to drug-addicts. Later on other Russian cities may also use our experience. If the city administration, the mayor and the City Duma do not support our project, we will prepare a Moscow- referendum. Therefore, it will be necessary to collect 100.000 signatures of Muscovites. If the referendum makes a success, it will open a way to the experimental medical use of heroin.

The third conclusion. Immediately after the first stage of our initiative in the Constitutional Court against the new fascist drugs law (in a week we managed to collect in the State Duma 25 of 90 necessary signatures of deputies, so we are sure that this initiative will make a success) we will prepare and present to the Parliament the State regulation of production, selling and consumption of cannabis and its derivatives federal law. We are going to hold a large-scale campaign for this draft law with the help of public opinion and common people, particularly the young ones. If necessary, this campaign may include some elements of civil disobedience in the spirit of Gandhi.

Today we are fully resolved to struggle for the legalisation and for an efficient control of drugs, against the unlimited economical and political power of organised criminality that controls the underground market of prohibited substances, against the true reasons of corruption that destroys our young democratic institutes, for the human rights and personal freedom, for the state of law and for the respect of the Law, for the right of drug-addicts to life, medical treatment and human dignity''.