ABSTRACT: Edgar Oblitas, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bolivia, has proposed studying the possibility of legalizing certain psychotropic drugs.

(THE PARTY new - N. 7 - May 1992)

Amongst other things, Oblitas also maintains: "The drug-trafficking business is dominated by the various international mafias who, in some cases, wield greater economic power than the countries producing drugs. We have to ask ourselves if it would be beneficial to permit the progressive legalization of certain psychotropic drugs in the future, something which current opinion trends in countries that produce and consume drugs are now beginning to confirm. If the legalization of drugs was able to count on the necessary support and was accepted by society, we would then have to think very seriously about the rules to be followed, and about creating legislation to protect the weakest. In spite of the fact that a fair number of prominent people in Europe and Latin America are in favour of legalization, it continues to remain a minor issue at official meetings held to combat drug-trafficking".

Marco Taradash, member of the European Parliament elected on the Antiprohibitionist list, and member of the Radical Party Federal Council, sent a letter to Chief Justice Oblitas, in which he said, amongst other things: "We have heard about your proposal to study the possibilities of legalizing drugs. The Radical Party has been conducting a similar campaign both in individual countries and at an international level through the International Antiprohibitionist League, for many years. The fact that the above suggestion comes precisely from Bolivia reinforces our beliefs, which are the following: that it is possible to bring banned drugs under the control of the law once again; to eliminate ever-increasing violence; to neutralize the power of the mafia, and to help those people who suffer from the terrible effects of drug addiction".

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We would like to quote Giorgio Giacomelli, Head of the UNDEP, the Anti-Drug Agency created by the UN: "The pilot-programmes to reconvert coca and opium plantations are very worthy, but taken together they only scratch the surface of this tremendous problem. The drug-traffickers are so ingenious, and have so many means at their disposal, that if we were to arrive at the point - and this is only an hypothesis - of uprooting the last coca and poppy plant, the market would by flooded by synthetic drugs the very next day".