ABSTRACT: The Radical Party gives political priority to the legalization of drugs as a means of eliminating the black market. The "forbidden fruit" image created by prohibition, and by the vain attempt to apply it, must be destroyed in order to deal with the social and health problems arising from drug abuse.

(The Party New, n.2, July 1991)

The Radical Party condemns the prohibition policy on drugs, codified once again in the 1988 Vienna Convention, as being responsible for the increase in crime in more and more countries all over the world; for the ever-increasing presence of organized crime in both the politics and economies of all countries; for legal systems and multinational agreements continually becoming less liberal, even in those countries which have always favoured the rights of citizens; for the unrelenting and widespread use of certain drugs - usually the most harmful form of the worst drugs - in increasingly wide social and geographical areas of the globe.

The Radical Party is the only political force today that openly condemns the intolerable social and institutional damage provoked by the prohibition policy, which is constantly on the increase. Unlawful activity and the accompanying violence are on the upswing in the major cities of the West. Users of the banned drugs turn daily into killers, armed robbers and thieves in order to get the money to pay the extortionate price fixed by the drug-trafficking organizations.

The number of AIDS victims is increased tragically by addicts being forced to use the same needle because drug-taking is illegal. The corruption of political and financial systems, which is already disturbing in richer countries, has an absolutely devastating effect in the poorer ones and, most particularly, in those that produce the raw materials from which the most profitable drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, are manufactured. In these countries, the presence of a market for both legal and illegal goods precludes the possibility of any steady economic development by destablizing the economy itself. The people who fight drugs with prohibition are destined to win činsignificant skirmishes but to lose the "war", because of the nature, size and economic power of the crime phenomenon they are up against. Not only do they remain impotent, they are also exploited by unscrupulous politicians in every country. This lack of effectiveness becomes the pretext for the breakdown of a liberal legal system and

the continual creation of special new laws, the declaration of wars on other countries in violation of International Law, and the reintroduction of the Death Penalty.

The Radical Party has heeded the warnings about the damaging effects of prohibition given by international authorities, and has made the elimination of the black market for drugs - which is the same as saying the prohibition policy - one of its political priorities. Destroying the "forbidden fruit" image that prohibition, and the impossibility of rendering it effective, has created for drugs, is the first - and decisive - step we must take to deal with the real social and health problems deriving from drug abuse.

By joining the Radical Party, we can all finally use and give new strength to a unique political "weapon" and instrument of communication which will link all the organizations that are fighting the prohibition policy in each continent. It is necessary to do this to obtain and defend civil rights, to uphold legality in public institutions, and to further democracy.