ABSTRACT: The Radical Party is engaged in the reformation of the law on drugs and especially in preventing the entrance in the penitentiary and criminal milieu of drug users and drug-addicts. Marco Pannella publicly smokes a joint to solicit the passing of a new law on drugs. Police Commissioner Ennio Di Francesco, after having arrested him, sends him a telegram to express solidarity for the merit of the initiative. Marco Pannella, from prison, by means of an article published in Notizie Radicali, advocates a stronger support of the party to the fasting of the Secretary of the Radical Party Gianfranco Spadaccia.

(Notizie radicali - July 1975 from "Marco Pannella - Works and speeches - 1959-1980", Gammalibri, January 1982)

Three days have gone by since our accusation against Justice Minister Oronzo Reale (this little old man perfectly represents the moral, political and cultural rottenness of the supposed Italian "laity"), the Director General of the Italian penitentiaries, and the President of the Juvenile Court Moro, for the infamous segregation of minors at Regina Coeli (1).

Yesterday the last of them left the Roman penitentiary. Neither Reale nor Moro have dared reply to our accusation, if not - at last - with the respect of the law. The problem now is to see whether they will get away with it.

In 48 hours 8 "drug" prisoners have been let out on bail, prisoners who had been repeatedly denied it; in their requests, the defending counsels explicitly mentioned our battles, our achievements, our goals.

In a few days, with the help of new friends and Radical lawyers, the Court appointed defense counsels for young prisoners charged with outrage or minor offences. In any case these youngsters are now free.

With the fast of Gianfranco Spadaccia and the activity of the other comrades of the radical Party (slightly deceptive, to be honest: wouldn't it have been better to organize demonstrations, direct non-violent actions, initiatives similar to ours in every city and country where we are present?), the "drug problem" exploded in terms of a fact of terrible urgency on all national newspapers, as we had expected. I think that even at this moment many lives have been saved, many violences on the part of the institutions prevented. Even the the sensational arrests against the heroin mafia, carried out by Chief Commissioner De Francesco were probably made easier by the climate we succeeded in creating.

As I write, I hope that the activity of the National Secretariat of the Radical Party will yield its fruits within Saturday: because if we shall not obtain final guarantees before the Parliamentary summer holidays, we run the risk of having engaged in this costly albeit necessary and excellent battle uselessly. The guarantees received up to now can easily be annulled by the resumption, in autumn, of parliamentary activity.

Gianfranco looks exhausted: many, both inside the party and outside, forget that in a period of one year he carried out a gigantic work; he was among the few who, last year, fully understood the necessity for the offensive which I had believed necessary to trigger against the attempted assassination of the Radical Party, of the lay forces, of much part of the republican legality, and one of the few who fully supported it; though continuing to work as a journalist, Spadaccia ensured the political direction of the party during the whole of this period, without halting; he was in prison for over a month, working even there in an intense and effective way; he carried out a total of three months of fasting in less than a year. Not to feel how all this is intolerable, not to behave consequently is demented, and not radical.

The party, under his direction, has grown a great deal and finds itself in the condition of ever more tackling engagements, goals, ever more pressing and irremovable deadlines.

It is also for this reason that I do not believe it possible for him to carry the burden of the action on drugs almost on his own much longer. I know him well enough to be aware of the fact that, with him, either the Radical Party manages to immediately save hundreds of people who risk death because of the present criminal and criminogenic laws, to free all those prisoners who, restrained for having "used" "non-drugs", fill the prisons, or there is the risk that he, Marisa Galli, Aloisio Rendi and Maria Leonia Taranta will engage in a fast to the bitter end.

And there are still the five referendums to be accomplished...

I believe all this is enough, not to mention other things, to "risk" a couple more months of jail for myself. I hope not to be imprisoned, I hope everything will be settled in these next days. In the contrary case, a contribution to the referendums on the part of the families of the prisoners and of the comrades who are in prison would be that of soliciting the immediate approval of the reformation of penitentiaries. Another battle which cannot be postponed and must absolutely be won.

Translator's notes

(1) Regina Coeli: Roman penitentiary