by Marco TARADASH

ITALY - Journalist, President of the Radical Party's Federal Council and one of the founders of CO.R.A. (Radical Anti-prohibitionist forum)

ABSTRACT: Narcocracy results from drug prohibition and is characterised by the immense power criminal organisations have acquired, ever growing violence and a serious threat to individual freedom.

("THE COST OF PROHIBITION ON DRUGS", Papers of the International

Anti-prohibitionism Forum, Brussels 28th september - 1st october 1988; Ed. Radical Party)

1. My intention here is simply to provide an introduction to our topic and this afternoon's discussion. I should like to begin by making a few comments on journalism - which is my profession - and my position as a citizen active in politics. Both activities, journalism and politics imply an ethical requisite, the development of a "generalist's" attitude - to borrow Robert Jung's expression. Or - more precisely - the capacity of forming a general view of any situation while, at the same time, maintaining a predominant concern for the common good.

Naturally, this is not the exclusive characteristic of journalists and politicians - experience, in fact, would appear to prove the contrary - but it is their "specific" duty. In the debate presently in progress in many countries around the world on the problem of drugs and illegal drug trafficking, what seems to me especially serious and misleading is that each group is limiting itself to its own narrow, specific and sectarian view of the issue. This, however, is par for the course at the official level of national governments or associated organisations, the result of which is the creation of policies against drug addiction, policies against organised crime, policies against AIDS, and so on. One example of this - in Italy - was the extensive power recently endowed the High Commission against the Mafia, allowing:

- the intercepting of telephone conversations without authorisation from a magistrate;

- free access to the prisons in order to interview prisoners; - the ordering of financial investigations;

- access to records of court proceedings still in progress; and - the right to the collaboration of the secret service and other powers.

The central government and other peripheral authorities allot billions of Lire for the rehabilitation of drug addicts, and then find themselves in difficulty when many of those drug users end up in prison, unable to avail themselves of the treatment provided for.

This practice of reacting to a particular aspect of the problem without considering the entire context in which the criminal and social pathology formed, hence opposing the "generalists" approach, prevents the realisation that the drug problem is considerably more complex than it was previously thought to be, i.e. its economic, criminal, medical and social implications, and its ever-increasing repercussion on the politics of individual countries and international relations.

2. Thus, the unwillingness to draw the logical conclusions is surprising, since a broader, less limited analysis were would aid enormously the implementation of effective solutions to the problems created by the present prohibitionist policy. I should like to cite here a few passages from the most recent report issued by the international organ for narcotic control: "The use of illegal drugs, both natural and synthetic, has undergone such a rapid increase in the last twenty years that it today threatens all countries and all social groups. The phenomenon is not limited exclusively to the large urban centres, to intellectuals or illiterates, or to the rich or poor; it has by now spread everywhere, to schools, work-places, clubs, sports (...)". And, it continues, "The production and the clandestine manufacture of drugs now affects a increasing numbers of countries throughout the world. This activity, which has reached alarming proportions, is financed and directed by criminal organisations with international

networks that can count on the complicity of the world of international finance. The important drug traffickers often use the same - absolutely legal - channels used by the large multi-national organisations. Thanks to their command of vast, almost unlimited funds, traffickers corrupt functionaries, spreading violence and terrorism, influence the enforcement of international conventions concerning the war against drugs, and actually exercise real and considerable political and economic power in many parts of the world."

This is a description of a new form of government--the worst kind possible - a Narcocracy. However, we know that the United Nations' conclusions are not in agreement either with the or with the conviction that the initiative to renew the failed Conventions of 1961 and 1971, with increased repressive measures, will not only fail to have any affect on the criminal forces, but will actually limit the liberal democratic guarantees in many countries.

And that is as far as the United Nations goes. Just consider the following, from a document approved last July in Toronto, at the Summit Meeting of the world's seven most industrialised countries: "The illegal consumption and illicit traffic of narcotic substances presents grave risks to the populations of the Summit countries, let alone those countries involved in production and transit. It is urgently necessary to improve international co-operation in each of the relevant areas with programs designed to combat all the aspects of the problem of illicit narcotic substances (...)". This was an encouraging initiative which could have led to analogous conclusions shared by many of the participants of this Colloquium, had it not been immediately contradicted by the re-emergence of the specific viewpoint: " (...) in particular, the production, traffic and finance of the drug trade." In another recent report on narcotics by the U.S. Department of State, it is stated that, " (...) the production, the consumption

and the traffic (of drugs) is out of control, beyond the capacity of any single government to suppress." It adds, "the drug traffickers can use their millions to corrupt and in fact buy the governments of the Western hemisphere". In 1986, during the course of the proceedings of an investigative committee of the European Parliament, the English conservative, Stewart Clark, drew the same conclusion, affirming that the illegal traffic of drugs had escaped all control, to the point of being, in reality, sold on the open market. The conclusions of both work groups were to result in the continuation of the same strategy. Therefore, in the United States, laws were passed reintroducing the death penalty at a Federal level, proposals made to utilise the Army, and agreements of collaboration between Europe and the U.S.A. drawn up.

Thus, a question of moral and legal relevance has got out of control, to the extend that it has become a major threat to geo-political stability. Yet, no one is willing to admit it.

3. This situation, unfortunately, brings to mind the well-known 'Banana Republic', the only difference being that it exists in the heart of democratic, capitalistic and industrialised Western civilisation. In certain parts of Italy - for instance, Naples and its surroundings, Calabria and Sicily - the introduction of the heroin trade (and lately, cocaine as well) and the resulting profits, have increased to a terrifying degree the power and the arrogance of traditional criminal organisations like the Mafia, the Camorra and the 'ndrangheta. In the last ten years, in Palermo, assassinations have struck down the Province's Secretary of the Christian Democrat Party, a trial reporter, the head of that city's Mobile Squad, a judge who was also a Deputy in Parliament and a member of the Anti-Mafia Commission, the regional president of the Christian Democrat Party, as well as the Head of Police of Monreale, the District Attorney of Palermo, the Regional Secretary of the Communist Party, a trial expert in Palermo,

the famous and authoritative General of the Carabinieri, who had special powers assigned to him in order to combat the Mafia, a substitute District Attorney of Trapani, the new head of the special Anti-Mafia Squad, a Vice-Questor of Palermo, the ex-Mayor of Palermo, and thousands of others. Recently, more have been added to the list, including the ex-President of the Tribune of Trapani, a trial judge of Palermo, and an ex-leader of the Italian political movement of 1968 who had not only founded a drug addicts rehabilitation community, but had also begun a press campaign against politicians and Mafia bosses involved in the heroin trade. Today, the Sicilian Mafia is an organisation capable of moving throughout the democratic State, in a clandestine wave, utilising guerilla techniques on the one hand and systematic corruption on the other.

Even the struggle between the rival clans over the control of the spoils of this 'war' has intensified. In Calabria, in the area controlled by the 'ndrangheta, there were 204 assassinations in 1987, which was a 47% increase as compared to the previous year. A large part of that area is beyond the control of State authorities. A recent report by the Higher Council of Magistrates refers to the "recent exacerbation of the situation in the social-economic spheres, the wide-spread and unchecked expansion of organised crime, the deterioration of the quality of life, and the expansion of illegal pockets - even within public administration". The situation is more or less the same in many areas of the heavily-populated outskirts of Naples where, during the past year, the contention between "Families" of the Camorra for control of the territory has resulted in an average of about one homicide every two days.

In fact, thanks to the enormous profits resulting from drug trafficking, organised crime in much of the South of Italy is being gradually transformed into a virtual holding company, actively operating and investing in all sectors of legal economic activities. In Sicily, Calabria and Campania, there exists a close interrelation between the control of drug trafficking and the destination of public expenditure.

An attempt was made to analyse this parallel economy. One of Italy's most important economic newspapers, "Il Sole 24 Ore", which is owned by the Industrial Association, estimated the annual intake of organised crime at approximately 50,000 billion Lire, 35,000 of which is related to the drugs introduced into Italy. This figure comes close to the annual transactions of FIAT, which is one of Italy's leading private companies. To be added to that figure are the proceeds of the Italian Mafia operating internationally, as intermediary between drug-producing countries and consumers in Northern Europe and North America.

It is therefore clear that drug traffic constitutes a threat to the entire planet. And, as I said previously, this state of affairs has been recognised in official documents of various national governments, including reports on the results of European Community investigations and the U.N. report on narcotics control. Yet, until now, no government has had the courage to modify its policy of penal repression of the consumption and trade of drugs. For, admitting that prohibition has failed, for many, would be the same as admitting that the wrong policy has been applied for thirty years. Continuation of the present policy of prohibition justifies the strategy of the past, at the same time maintaining the exceptional economic and social status given the anti-drug professionals by both the supra-national organisations and the single States. In today's world, the enormous capital amassed by organised crime through the drug industry has become the principal source of violence, corruption and social degradation.

And, at the same time, it is a serious obstacle to the development of any potential, either in the poorer areas of the world or in the industrialised countries. The profits derived from drugs - slightly more than a billion dollars - would, within the space of two or three years be sufficient to eliminate all external debts of the developing countries.

4. Drug money has invaded all levels of civil society - the banks, the stock exchange, legal and illegal economic activities, creating corruption, blackmail and armed violence in political and judicial institutions.

Criminality thrives on drug money, and the drug market thrives on criminality. The number of heroin addicts increases each year, because the newly-initiated are forced to become "travelling salesmen" of heroin in order to support their habit. The alternatives to that would be theft, murder or prostitution. From Germany to the United States, from Spain to Italy, from Canada to the South American cities, drug traffic is recognised as the cause of a high percentage of crime - up to 80% of thefts, robberies, purse-snatching and homicides. Each year, there are millions of victims of senseless violence, not so much caused by the nature of drugs or drug addicts, as the imperious need for money which is the result of an absurd and inhuman law. There are millions of silent individuals, for whom the Christian or humanitarian imperative to champion the victim has no meaning. This climate of violence is the price the various States willingly pay in the name of an abstract and foolhardy concept they call the 'war again

st drugs'. And the money of those millions of anonymous contributors enriches, strengthens and renders invincible that same enemy prohibition claims - with absolutely no hope of succeeding-it would destroy.

5. The preliminary responses to the questions raised up to this point are : The legalisation of the production, commerce and sale of those drugs presently prohibited (marijuana, heroin and cocaine) which would result in the reduction - at least in most countries - of their use of to level for legal drugs (alcohol - from wine to hard liquor - and tobacco). The price of those drugs would be reduced by 99%, leaving it to the individual States to impose an appropriate tax to discourage consumption and guarantee quality, the result of which would be the reducing to a minimum of harmful effects - including the spreading of AIDS and other diseases. The international Mafia would thus suffer a blow that even a coalition of all the armies of the East and West combined would be incapable of inflicting - the immediate loss of its primary source of economic power, and thus its invincibility. Legalisation would immediately eliminate the motive for the millions of violent acts generally affecting the weakest and most def

enceless. It would liberate the forces of law and order and the magistrates of the burden of dealing with these crimes, automatically improving effectiveness in safeguarding public security. It would also free the enormous sums of money presently spent financing useless man-hunts to be used instead for more effective campaigns to discourage the use of drugs and for treatment for addicts.

The level of violence in our cities today, is the direct result of drug prohibition, in the same way that alcohol prohibition in the Chicago of Al Capone was. But failed prohibition has resulted in a mortal threat to individuals, to liberty, to peace and to the rights of States and the state of those rights, which is always the case when laws threaten civil rights (beginning with the re-introduction of the death penalty in many States where it had been abolished) and the guarantee of the right to fair trial.