ABSTRACT: The drugs issue is not only represented by the number of overdose deaths, the inter-gang rivalry, or the spread of AIDS. The real crisis is to have lost all legislative, social and health control over the free drugs market which gives so much power to international criminal organisations: twelve sovreign states in the world are directly controlled, or greatly influenced, by drug traffickers. This explosive situation which has prompted an international crisis is not caused by the drugs themselves, but by the prohibition policy that has been adopted. This policy is not only counter-productive in social, health and prevention terms, but also is completely incompatible with the democratic progress and economic development of entire regions and cities of the world. The transnational movement is against militarism, both in the East and the West, and consequently against the growth of military activity within societies, using the problems of drugs as an excuse. The Radical Party. today, is the only politi

cal instrument that can campaign effectively against the prohibition policy adopted to control the drugs problem. A new reasoned policy needs to be adopted, one which does not attempt to decide what is, and is not, good for the individual, but which deals with the issue, through just laws, and ends a situation that allows such profitable returns for the drugs barons.

(The Party New, n.1, June 1991)

Twelve sovreign states in the world are directly controlled or influenced by drug traffickers - according to recent information released by Interpol. It is one of the features of an international crisis which helps explain the political objectives and the complexity of the anti-prohibition campaign which is seeking to change the current policy towards the drugs problem. The issue is no longer just that of mounting overdose deaths, the horror of inter-gang bloodshed, or the frightening rise in deaths from Aids. The present policy favours the spread of injectable drugs by assuring maximum profits on the black market for traffickers and means that the use of drugs remains clandestine and misinformed.

These consequences remain a serious part of the drugs problem, but they are not the end of the story. The real horror is to have lost all legislative, social and health control of a problem which entrusted to the free criminal market has released all its destructive power.

The social problems have their origins in the transformation of certain agricultural crops such as the poppy and the coca leaf into chemical substances. But those looking to solve the problems must be aware of the cat and mouse game that is going on between the government bureaucracies and criminal organisations. The stake they are playing for is international equlibrium and democratic stability, not to mention the health and lives of millions of people, a small part of whom are actually drug users.

The real danger is that the present restrictive policy towards the use of drugs is no longer compatible with democratic progress. The economic development of whole regions of the world is being undermined and many of the advances that have been made in the field of civil freedom and rights are at risk.

The conservativism of the United States government and their policy of "war on drugs" has transformed what used to be social and health problems into a situation that is destabilising democracy and threatening the rule of law. The hidden drugs economy is valued by the United Nations at $500 billion a year and a powerful and repressive bureaucratic structure has been formed to deal with it. The attitudes that have allowed this state of affairs to arise are the same as those that threaten civil liberties in other areas in an attempt to smother the existence of "different" ideologies, religions or sexual habits. In addition, there are more sinister and immediate political profits to be gained from this conservative and restrictive approach. Thus, through their attempts to destroy coca plantations the United States are able to inconspicuously further their political influence and control. They have substituted the red threat with the drug threat and so maintain a direct financial and military control on the pol

itics of certain countries. The results of this can easily be seen: the number of plantations of the illegal crops has increased, the traffickers have gained more power and the social and political life of entire nations has suffered as a consequence.

In Eastern Europe, during the period of communist rule, the police and economic constraints both served to make drug addiction an insignificant economic problem. Now, though the situation is about to change; first economic conditions will improve and then, with the arrival of the different drugs from the West, social problems will be a natural consequence. Money, violence and indiscriminate repression will follow. Whoever establishes themselves in the drugs trade today, stands to make both financial gain and an elevation in social status. The number of drug addicts registered in the USSR is 131,000, in Poland it is is estimated to be 250,000, in Czechoslovakia 100,000 and in Hungary 50,000. The threat posed by this increase in drug related activity may well hinder acceptance of some ex-communist states into the liberal democratic community. Many of the eastern and central European countries are aware of the threat, a fact demonstrated by the agreements and contacts that have been made with international orga

nisations involved in fighting the drugs trade. However, they are unaware of the consequences involved, it is like the chicken inviting the wolf to dinner. The countries that accept the United Nations strategy, conceived under US influence, are surely mistaken. It is a safe bet the drugs issue is going to have a major influence on the development of democracy and civil liberties as we near the end of the century. In Europe today, we witness a continent which looks on without reacting to what is happening within its borders. There has been a rise in illegal activities, violence, the power of organised crime, the spread of AIDS and the number of deaths from drug overdoses.

The Radical Party is the only organisation that can fight a campaign against the policy of prohibition. This campaign is being waged at a social level, through scientific information and on a political level through direct action.

There is an urgent need to change this damaging drugs policy so that democratic progress in many western nations and in countries recently liberated from dictatorship is not threatened by a power that wishes to define good and bad in the private lives of citizens who have become subjects.

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Against all armies

On 21 August 1968, Marco Pannella and other radicals secretly distributed leaflets condemning the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia. They were arrested and deported.

Hiroshima forty years on: on 5 August 1985, Italian, French, Belgian and Spanish radicals demonstrated in Washington and 13 European capitals to call for special measures to be taken to halt the massive waste of life through starvation in the South of the World, and for a new international law for the right to conscientious objection. There were arrests in Ankara, Belgrade, Brussels and East Berlin.

In September 1985, Italian, French and Belgian radicals distributed 50,000 leaflets in Yugoslavia supporting the entry of the country into the European Community and for the right to freedom of expression.

On 30 June 1986, in Warsaw, Italian, Spanish, Belgian and French radicals distributed leaflets calling for freedom for 250 political detainees and for the thousand conscientious objectors in Polish prisons. They were arrested and deported.

On 4 September 1987, the radicals distributed hundreds of leaflets in Moscow, inviting young Russian people to refuse to do military service in Afghanistan and to claim the right to protest against the war.

In August 1988, a few days before the twentieth anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Belgian, Italian, Spanish and American radicals unfolded a banner in Saint Wenceslas square, in Prague, on which was written "Together for democracy; Soviet troops out; Freedom; Civil Rights". They were arrested.

In June 1989 radicals demonstrated, in East Berlin, against the Wall and in favour of the United States of Europe. They were arrested and deported.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, 23 August 1989, numerous radicals took part in demonstrations in Russia and the Baltic states. Many of the non-violent demonstrators were arrested in Moscow and Leningrad.

On 15 November 1989, the radicals demonstrated for democracy and human rights in front of the Romanian embassy in many European countries. There were arrests of demonstrators in Moscow.