Following is the text of the question of the referendum promoted by the CORA and by the Radical Party on the Jervolino-Vassalli bill.
Following are a few explanatory notes on the text and on the consequences in case of abrogation of the norms submitted to referendum.
The question
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Do you want articles 2 comma 1 letter e) point 4; 72 comma 1, 72 comma 2 limitedly to the words "as in comma 1"; 73 comma 1 limitedly to the words "and 76"; 75 comma 1 limitedly to the words "in a dose not exceeding the daily average dose, established on the basis of the criteria outlined in comma 1 of art. 78"; 75 comma 12, limitedly to the words "informing him of the consequences he could encounter. If the person does not appear before the prefect, or states his refusal of the program or interrupts it again without a justified reason, the prefect informs the Procurator of the Republic to the magistrate's court or the procurator of the Republic to the Juvenile Court, forwarding the papers for the implementation of the measures outlined in art. 76. The prefect acts in a similar way in cases where the facts outlined in commas 1 and 2 of the present article are committed for the third time"; 75 comma 13, limitedly to the words "and in art. 76"; 76; 78 comma 1, limitedly to letters b) and c); 80 comma 5; 120 co
mma 5; 121 comma 1; of the President's Executive Order of 9 October 1990, n.309, "Single text of the laws pertaining to narcotics and psychotropic substances, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of the relative states of drug addiction" to be abrogated?
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The referendum on the Jervolino-Vassalli bill requests the abrogation of the regulations (art.76) which directly or indirectly introduce penal sanctions for personal use of controlled substances. On the contrary, it confirms the administrative sanctions provided by article 75, in conformity with the commitments taken by the Italian parliament with the ratification, in 1990, of the U.N. Convention of Vienna of 1988 (forbidding referendums for the abrogation of the regulations contained in the international treaties ratified by Italy).
Moreover, the referendum requests the abrogation of the so-called daily average dose, that is, the mechanical and purely quantitative criterion which (articles 75 and 78) draws the line between personal use and dealing, and therefore between administrative sanction and penal sanction. True that the Constitutional Court, with the sentence of 11 July 1991, has already disclaimed the mechanism of the daily average dose; the Court has laid down that the possession of quantities slightly above the daily average dose is not enough to automatically issue a charge of drug dealing. By abolishing the regulations submitted to referendum, personal use will be punished according to article 75 (which charges the prefect with a series of options) and drug dealing will be punished according to art. 73, which will be left unchanged. Moreover, consumers will no longer be jailed for this reason only.
It also requests the abrogation of comma 1 of article 72, the "ideological manifesto" of the Jervolino-Vassalli bill, where it states that "the personal use of narcotics and psychotropic substances is forbidden". The abolition of this article has no practical consequences, as personal use remains - in conformity with the Convention of Vienna - an offence subjected to the sanctions provided by art. 75, but expels an element of "State morals" which is entirely anomalous in the juridical tradition of democratic States.
The other points submitted to referendum concern the freedom of the physician. The Minister of Health is deprived of the faculty of establishing limits and conditions in the use of substitute drugs (art. 2); moreover, the regulations (art. 120 and 121) which force the family doctor to forward the name of their patients who consume controlled drugs to the public service are abolished.
