The Founding Conference of the International League Against Prohibition was organized by the CORA (Coordinamento Radicale Antiproibizionista) and by the Partito Radicale.
The basis to this event was laid in the Antiprohibitionist Symposium held in Brussels (Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 1988), where for the first time scientits and operators who do not agree with the ongoing drug policy could meet and exchange their opinions: they came from Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherland, Spain and US.
In Rome (March 30 - April 1) met 42 congresspersons, representing 15 nationalities: Canada, France, Italy, USA, Colombia, Spain, Holland, Venezuela, Bolivia, Great Britain, Brasil, Switzerland, Belgium, FRG, Denmark. They belonged to every prfessional field connected with the drug problem: psychologists, sociologists, economists, physicians, magistrates, lawyers, criminologists, politicians, police officers.
The first news about the Conference appeared in the Italian press when Congressman Robert Randall declared his possession of legal pot to the Italian customs officers at Fiumicino Airport; his 116 USA Govt issued joints were politely seized, and Bob had to resort to other medicine to sooth his glaucoma.
Another personage that had some relevance on Italian media was Ralph Salerno, for his role of antiprohibitionist policeman, quite unusual for the ongoing stereotyped ideas about this issue.
Interesting communications were given by representatives from Latin America, who expressed for the first time in Europe and perhaps in the world position different from the official ones.
Nevertheless, the Conference had a press coverage that was inadequate to the level of the debate. In the same days, a new iper-repressive law (supported mainly by the socialist leader Craxi) was being discussed in the Italian Senate, and the press presented generally the Conference as sort of countermove to the socialist law. The only exception was the magazine "L'Espresso", wich also collaborated in launching the initiative.
The Conference approved the following political resolution:
"1. Prohibited drugs are ever more widely available, in an ever widening circle of crime.
2. Prohibition has failed. The failure is unacknoledged by the national legislatures and international bodies, especially the UN, that give the lead on drug policies.
3. Prohibition has created the illegal drug trade and the groups that profit from it.
4. The criminal drug trade is multinational, extending from North America to Europe, to the Middle East, to Asia, North Africa and especially to Latin America.
5. The dominant organizations - called cartels, triads, mafias, families - threaten private peace and political stability throughout the world. Repressive action by state agencies make the dangers worse.
6. The failure of prohibition has transformed a question of personal choice and personal health into a world-wide drama. The crime tha results also endangers ordinary citizens, their safety and their civil liberties.
7. Never have bad laws, even if made with good intent, had such ill effects since the US introduced their prohibitionist policy on alcohol in 1919.
8. The modern version of prohibition has turned great cities into battlefields, without safeguarding those whom it was intended to protect. Those tempted by hard drugs are thrust into criminality and disease, the worst being AIDS. Casual users are at risk of inprisonment, regular users are driven to crime to finance their habit, ordinary citizens are put in danger.
9. The cost of the failed attempt to prohibit some drugs, while allowing the advertisement and sale of others such as alcohol and tobacco, is universal and vast.
10. Freedom itself is rapidly being undermined by the enforcement of the laws against drugs, to win no advantage for individuals or for society.
11. We, the undersigned, at the Founding Congress of the International League against Prohibition, commit ourselves to the following objectives:
a. to coordinate people and organizations in the social scientific and political fields, who support the objectives of the League against Prohibition.
b. to disseminate information and understanding on policies concerning drugs and on the harm caused by the present system of prohibition and its consequences for criminality.
c. to challenge the arguments and policies that maintain the prohibitionism at present practised by the UN and its agencies under the existing Conventions.
d. to initiate and support actions at international and national level to dismantle the system of prohibition."
President of the League was elected Marie Andree Bertrand, criminologist at the Montreal University and member of the Canadian Commission of Inquiry into the non-medical use of Drugs.
Vice-presidents: Rosa Del Olmo (Lecturer of Criminology at the University of Caracas, Venezuela), Remo Di Natale (jurist, founder of the Party for the alternative, Bolivia), Lester Grinspoon (Psychiatrist, Harvard Medical School, USA), Marco Pannella (MP at the European Parliament for the Partito Radicale, Italy), Luis Diez Ripolles (Lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of Malaga, Spain), Ralph Salerno (USA).
Treasurer: Georg Thamm (sociologist, FRG).
Executive secretaries: Peter Cohen (University of Amsterdam), Anthony Henman (member of the Statal Council of Sao Paulo, Brasil), Marco Taradash (co-founder of CORA, Italy), George Thamm, Kevin Zeese (lawyer, vice president of the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington).
The founders: Alexander, Apap, Arnao, Brecher,Carasquilla, Castrillo, Del Gatto, Carcia, Harman, Joset, Lamberti, Lewis, Manconi, Martino, Mirtenbaum, Nadelmann, Picard, Pomeroy, Randall, Roelandt, Savater, Sengers (European Movement for the Normalization of Drug Policy, Rotterdam), Stevenson, Szasz, Ulburghs, Verbeke, Van Vliet, Van de Wijngaart, Winslow, Zorilla.
The temporary address of the League is
