ABSTRACT: The draft bill submitted by the deputies of the European federalist parliamentary group aims at the legalization, the production, the trade and the use of Indian cannabis as a "non-drug".

(Chamber of Deputies, 10th legislature, Draft bill n. 3059 submitted on 2 August 1988)

HONOURABLE COLLEAGUES!

We believe the revision of the regulation established by law n. 685 of 22 December 1975, relative to the use and the trade of psychotropic substances, with specific reference to Indian cannabis, can no longer be postponed.

Because we have always considered the prohibitionist "remedy" as dangerous for the so-called psychotropic substances, in that it is responsible for an amplification of the effects of the perverse circuit production-clandestine trade-misuse of drugs, we are all the more convinced now that it is necessary to liberalize the production and the trade of a substance such as Indian cannabis, which, on the basis of an ample series of scientific researches, can rightly be considered a "non drug". Thorough researches have ruled out the medical consequences and the social implications which are the basis and generally the justification of the prohibition of highly psychotropic substances. In this specific case, the results of such researches have on the one hand lead to radically exclude any link between the use of cannabis and criminal behaviours, and on the other hand have revealed the non-existence of a casual nexus between such use and the onset of mental diseases or the use of so-called hard drugs. Moreover, no ph

enomenons of cannabis addiction have been ascertained, and from a toxicologic point of view, any chronic or acute effects can also be ruled out; the ascertained toxicity of such substance, in the quantities in which it is normally consumed, is in any case inferior to that of alcohol or tobacco.

Considering that the latter substances are not considered drugs by the Italian legal regulations, the necessity to eliminate the discrimination of a non-drug to the detriment of the consumers is self-evident. Cannabis has been incoherently included in the table of psychotropic substances. Such discrimination is, among other things, carried out by means of an actual criminalization, because the possession of modest quantities of the substance for personal use represents - at the current state of affairs - only a condition of non-punishability for the consumer. A further incongruity is represented by the insistence of the prohibition on the production and the trade of Indian cannabis and of its derivatives, a ban which could be justified only in the intention of preventing its consumption, but which lacks any justification in the context of a system in which personal consumption is not punished.

As far as international bonds are concerned, which Italy is allegedly subjected to on the basis of the adhesion to the United Nations' Single Convention on drugs, the relative objections could easily be overcome. First of all, Indian cannabis could be crossed out of the Convention upon the amendment of any adhering country. Secondly, the participation to the United Nations would by no means be jeopardized, as someone has suggested, by a country's request to withdraw from the Convention, nor would a similar choice invalidate the norms of international trade, which could be applied in any case in all U.N. countries. Lastly, those who advocate the need to maintain the prohibitionist policy on Indian cannabis on the basis of such Convention should recall the Convention of Vienna, of 1969, which introduces the procedure of the "selective denunciation" on the part of the adhering countries, consisting in a fundamental disregard of the dispositions which are considered to be the result of "factual errors" of the Co

nvention itself.

All this leaves space and reason for a proposal for the subjection of the trade and the production of cannabis, in the context of a free and not just "non-punishable" use, to an administrative authorizing type of regime, involving a control on such activities, exactly as for tobacco and alcohol.

For such reasons, we propose (art. 1) the abrogation of n. 2, comma 1, of art. 12 of law n. 685 of 22 December 1975, which provides for the subjection of Indian cannabis to the regulations on psychotropic substance.

As a consequence, such intervention calls for the introduction of a disposition (art.2) authorizing the cultivation and processing of Indian cannabis, with the inclusion - to be formulated in a subsequent administrative act - of a specific authorization and the preparation of sanctions for the violation of such regime. We consider it useful to recall the dispositions of the current regulation, and especially art. 71 of law n. 685.

Fundamentally, the proposal for the liberalization of "marijuana" represents a first step in conforming the Italian legislation to the - unquestionable - evolution of the country's social situation, providing an indication on the uselessness of maintaining repressive schemes faced to behaviours which cannot be defined criminal.

We believe we can give a contribution aimed at eliminating the danger involved in the maintenance of a regulation which does not face the problem of drugs and drug addiction in a resolution approach, in that it basically limits itself to the assimilation of activities which can be considered part of the inviolable personal sphere to the objective illegality of certain behaviours - and their repression.

Art. 1

Number 2) of the first comma of art. 12 of law n. 685 of 22 December 1975 is abrogated. Any other reference to Table II in Title VIII and in any other disposition contained in the above law as well as any reference to Indian cannabis and derivatives are abrogated.

Art. 2

The cultivation of Indian cannabis and the production of its derivatives is allowed, except in the following case:

- anyone who intends to cultivate, produce, use, import, export, receive or in any case posses for commercial purposes Indian cannabis or its derivatives must have the authorization of the competent authorities; the violation of the above bans is punished on the basis of art. 71 of law n. 685 of 22 December 1975.

Art. 3

The present law takes effect on the day following its publication on the Official Gazette.