DRUGS: APPROVAL OF THE D'ANCONA REPORT FOR A EUROPEAN POLICY ON DRUGS IN THE CIVIL LIBERTIES AND INTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE.

LESS THAN ONE YEAR AFTER THE RESOLUTION TABLED BY 61 ANTIPROHIBITIONIST MEPs, SOME PRAGMATIC AND CONCRETE PROPOSALS TO FACE THE SCOURGE OF DRUGS AT LAST.

Brussels, 3 November 1997. By the approval of the dAncona report which took place this afternoon in the Committee for Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs, the European Parliament has at last broken the ostrich policy on the drugs issue.

In her report the rapporteur, former Minister of Health of the Netherlands and current President of the Committee, has proposed a pragmatic and European approach that considers all the positive results reached by the experiences of various European states, regions and towns.

In particular the report proposes:

- THE WIDESPREADING OF HARM REDUCTION POLICIES

- THE REFORM OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS

- THE DEPENALISATION OF THE CONSUMPTION OF ALL DRUGS

- THE LEGALISATION OF THE PRODUCTION AND OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF CANNABIS

The report has been supported by a steady majority consisting of the European Radical, Green, Socialist, Communist, Liberal party groups and by some deputies of the PPE.

The d'Ancona report follows the proposal for a recommendation tabled less than a year ago by 61 MEPs and promoted by CO.R.A. (Radical Antiprohibitionist Co-ordination, federated to the Radical Party) and by PAA (Parliamentarians for Antiprohibitionist Action- intergroup of antiprohibitionist MEPs)

DECLARATION OF OLIVIER DUPUIS AND GIANFRANCO DELL'ALBA, MEPs:

"This report, although still very partially, at last faces in a pragmatic and concrete way one of the most grave scourges of our time: prohibition of drugs. For one of the forbidden substances, (and although not the most profitable for organized crime) cannabis, legalization is indicated as being the only way to govern the problem. It is an important step. We cannot and do not want to underestimate it. But we do not have to forget that the enormous and growing power of the drug mafias will not be damaged until it is deprived of the most important source of revenue: the traffic of hard and synthetic drugs, that represents, according to the UN reports, 8% of the world gross domestic product. It is therefore urgent to stengthen the European organization of the antiprohibitionists in order to follow up this first positive step with more actions aimed at shifting these at present illegal substances towards the legal market, therefore in the field of definite rules and applicable laws.

Transnational Radical Party

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