Elisabetta Casalotti, Head of the Greek Antiprohibitionist League.

Greece, a small country with a population of just over 10 million, can be considered to be in first place in Europe with regard to drug use. It is estimated that the number of heroin addicts has risen from 2,000 in 1980 to over 150,000 in 1993.

The use of cannabis and its derivates is particularly widespread among the population, and is part of the tradition of the country: there are currently around one million cannabis users.

Greece is also at the hub of the international drug traffic, an important link between the East and the West: heroin from the East is transported to Italy by sea, and then distributed to other European countries; traffickers from all over the world pass through Athens Airport.

The legislative tradition, with a strong prohibitionist bias over the last 75 years, has contributed to the rapid increase in the number of deaths caused by heroin, which reached 200 last year. Thanks to the efforts of the Greek section of the IAL, founded in November 1989, in the last four years there has been a gradual change in the approach to the rapid expansion of the drug phenomenon.

The following are the main steps taken by the legislators on the road to the approval of the new law of July 1993, which replaces Law 1729/1987 and can be considered among the most advanced in Europe.

With the aim of revising Law 1729/1989, with its prevalently prohibitionist approach, an ad hoc interparliamentary commission was set up in July 1990, with the task of analyzing the progress of the phenomenon and dealing rapidly with the spread of drug use. After two years, the commission presented its proposals to parliament; for the first time, the prohibitionist regime was called into question with the proposal for the depenalization of the use of narcotic and psychotropic substances, the administration to addicts of methadone and other substitute drugs, and the creation of pilot programmes for the controlled distribution of heroin.

In May 1992, on the proposal of the Greek section of the IAL, eight opposition MPs, with the support of a number of MPs from the party in government, New Democracy, presented a bill in parliament which rejected the principles of the prohibitionist policy, with a proposal for the depenalization of the possession of drugs for personal use, the depenalization of the cultivation of small quantities of marijuana, and the controlled distribution of heroin.

In response to the proposal of the eight Mps, which was never debated in parliament, the government presented a new bill which was approved by majority in July 1993.

Although it does not fully adhere to the principles of antiprohibitionism, the law brings radical changes which can be considered an important step towards a more reasonable approach to the problem.

The principles of the current law, which gives the judges and the Ministry of Health a considerable degree of freedom in the application of its provisions, can be summed up as follows: drug addicts are not subject to prosecution, but are to be offered therapeutic alternatives; drugs are to be classified according to their level of dangerousness, determined by a decree of the Minister of Health; the state will safeguard drug addicts through programmes for the distribution of methadone, and for the experimental distribution of heroin. It is also established that those who grow small quantities of marijuana are to be considered in the same way as users of the drug.

It is still too early to make judgements, but the election to government of the Pasok, a party which has frequently expressed support for antiprohibitionist ideas, raises hopes that the law will be interpreted in a manner which comes as near as possible.