From [B Parrella] at [agora.stm.it] Sun Aug 14 23:41:29 1994 To: jerry Subject: IAL-Fax # 18. Date: Mon, 15 Aug 94 8:29:59 GMT ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Notice* The International Anti-prohibitionist League (IAL) is undergoing a major re-organization of its offices and services - which is causing a few problems in its electronic correspondence. This message, including the IAL-Fax latest issue, is sent out from a different e-mail address; in any case you should refer to the IAL e-mail address <[i--l] at [igc.apc.org]>. We apologize for the inconvenience, hoping everything will be back to normal by next September. Thank you for your understanding & interest. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IAL-Fax Year III N. 18, 2 August 1994 - Contents: BOGOTA WILL NOT ACCEPT U.S. DICTATION ON DRUG POLICY Le Monde, 19.7.94. Anne Proenza SPANISH TEENAGERS BEGIN TO REJECT DRUGS AND ALCOHOL El Pais, 19.7.94. FRANCE: DRUG ADDICTION AND AIDS Reuter, La Libre Belgique, Libe'ration, Le Monde, 22.7.94. FOR A NEW DRUG POLICY Luis Yanez-Barnuevo (Socialist deputy for Seville) El Pais, 28.7.94. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOGOTA WILL NOT ACCEPT U.S. DICTATION ON DRUG POLICY Le Monde, 19.7.94. Anne Proenza The Colombian Minister of Foreign Affiars, Noemi Sanin, has announced that the government will give up American anti-drugs aid if it is dependent on the request for a written commitment from the Colombian government to intensify the fight against the cartels. The statement followed the adoption by the US Senate of an emendment freezing American aid, which amounts to $37 million, if Bogota does not co-operate fully in the fight against trafficking. The emendment was passed on Friday 15 July. "The international aid which Bogota receives for the fight against drug-trafficking has always been interpreted as a sign of solidarity," stated the Colombian government in a press release. "It does not give any country or government the right to dictate the general lines of our drug policy." It added that "American aid is quite modest and has already been cut back considerably in the last two years." Relations between Colombia and the United States on the subject of the fight against drug-trafficking have deteriorated in the last few days. The Colombian authorities took the failure of the visit to Washington by General Oscar Vargas Silvia as a snub. Although the visit by the Colombian Chief of Police had been planned for weeks, he was not received as expected by the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency. According to the Colombian press, suspicions about the origin of a sum of money in the last presidential election campaign and the corruption of a number of high-ranking Colombian officials are behind the latest measures taken by the American authorities. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPANISH TEENAGERS BEGIN TO REJECT DRUGS AND ALCOHOL El Pais, 19.7.94. According to the results of a study presented yesterday by the Minister of Social Affairs, Cristina Alberdi, the year 2000 will see a new generation of Spanish teenagers who will smoke very little, reject drugs and develop a new leisure culture. This generation, which is beginning to emerge, has succeeded in reducing the number of hard drinkers among the teenage population by 47%, whilst the number of smokers in the 15-17 age group has decreased from 51% to 17.8% in a decade. The number of adolescents and young people who drink alcohol has fallen. The change has not affected everyone. Those who continue to drink consume more, and more compulsively, at weekends. Young people smoke less, and increasingly reject hard drugs, although drugs such as speed are fashionable. Heroin attracts new adepts every day among extreme right-wing urban groups. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRANCE: DRUG ADDICTION AND AIDS Reuter, La Libre Belgique, Libe'ration, Le Monde, 22.7.94. On Thursday the French Minister for Social Affairs, Mme Simone Veil, announced new measures to improve the prevention of Aids among drug addicts, estimated to be around 150,000 in France: wider distribution of syringes and employment of substitute drugs. The measures, which will cost 37 million francs, aim to curb the spread of infections among heroin addicts: almost 30% are currently HIV-positive, while 70% have contacted hepatitis C. The former president of the European Parliament announced during a press conference that prevention kits, "real life-saving kits for addicts", will be on sale in pharmacies at a price of 5 francs from 15 September. The kits contain two syringes, a condom, sterilized water, an alcoholized swab, and a prevention message. According to Simone Veil, however, the distribution of sterile syringes should above all be "diversified". To achieve this, syringe exchange programmes will be intensified - 25 at the end of the year against 3 in the last 18 months - and the distribution of syringes by associations will be authorized. 5 syringe distribution machines will also be installed around the country. As far as substitute products are concerned, Mme Veil announced that the number of methadone places, which stood at 52 in March 1993, will be increased to 1,646 before the end of the year. There are currently around 500. Health Minister Mr Douste-Blaze added that "We really need about 5,000. But these measures will allow us to move up a gear." In terms of substitute treatment, France is a long way behind its neighbours and countries in the forefront, like the Netherlands and Great Britain. Mr Douste-Blazy recalled the success of the distribution of condoms for one franc at the beginning of the year, and said he believed "it had considerably increased the use of condoms by young people." He added that "the prevention kit will continue this initiative among young addicts." The Health Minister pointed out that the Prime Minister, Edouard Balladur, had decided to add 100 million francs to the funds collected on 7 April by the "Sidaction" (Action on Aids) operation, broadcast by seven TV channels. 30 million francs will be devoted to research, and 70 million to prevention and treatment. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR A NEW DRUG POLICY Luis Yanez-Barnuevo (Socialist deputy for Seville) El Pais, 28.7.94. The two main risks of a policy are leaps in the dark, changes which are not based on sufficient reflection, and on the other hand inertia, the refusal to revise a policy due to the conservative sentiment "better the devil you know...". The anti-prohibitionist and repressive drug policy which has been pursued throughout the world for the last thirty years seems unlikely to be revised in the near future, despite the fact that it has failed to achieve its objectives (the eradication of the traffic and consumption of drugs) and has even worsened the situation. At the beginning of the sixties, the consumption of drugs was confined to restricted groups in Europe and the United States, and was not a real social problem. Nevertheless, in 1961 the UN adopted the Single Convention on Drugs imposing the prohibitionist line, which continued to gain force until the Vienna Convention of 1988, while national legislations became increasingly repressive. Thirty years later, we are faced with a gigantic international mafia and organized crime network which, according to UN figures, controls more than $500 billion, produced by the illicit traffic of drugs, with enormous powers of infiltration and corruption in political, economic and judicial circles and in the media. This allows it to influence political decisions (including the decision to allow the continuation of the current situation), to pollute markets, to bring down governments or to support friendly regimes such as the Haitian military junta. Even though in a few countries like Spain the use of drugs is not penalized and addicts are not treated like delinquents, prohibition banishes drug users from society and increases the risk of the spread of infectious diseases. Illegality prevents any form of health control of the psychotropic substances in circulation: the contamination of drugs and ignorance about safe doses are the main cause of death among addicts, especially with regard to heroin. In the same way, in the judicial and penal field we must question the costs-benefits of prohibition and repression: overcrowded prisons, an overloaded judicial system, a move in the direction of police states, imbalances in political budgets which, although they are ridiculously low in comparison with the sums handled by the mafias, make it impossible to use funds for other purposes. More than two-thirds of crimes committed in cities are drugs-related. Exactly as with the prohibition of alcohol in the US, the prohibition of drugs leads to extremely high prices. These are the consequence of the criminalization tax, a sort of risk premium which the trafficker recovers. Such high profit margins are so attractive that there will always be people prepared to run such highly-paid risks. High prices, however, far from being an insuperable obstacle for drug users, turn them into small-time dealers who need to find new recruits in order to finance their habit. Not to speak of the fact that they turn to theft and prostitution. The only positive element of current policy, at least partially, is anti-drugs education. The campaigns on the effects of psychotropic drugs, especially among teenagers, have contributed in recent years to the rejection of indiscriminate use and to a drastic fall in the consumption of heroin. An increasing number of authoritative voices are calling for a change in the current drug policies. Scientists, jurists, intellectuals, and politicians have founded the International Anti-prohibitionist League, which met recently in Rome. Prestigious publications such as The Economist and the Independent have also recently taken a stance against prohibitionism. The Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez heads an anti-probitionist manifesto promoted by the magazine Cambio 16. In the United States, leading figures like Milton Friedman and Joseph McNamara will appeal to President Clinton for an end to the "war on drugs", the last bastion of prohibitionism. In Spain, more and more magistrates and jurists are asking for an urgent revision of the current drug policy. However, there is still no serious and widespread debate on the subject. The political parties fear, if they take the first step, that they will immediately be accused of contributing to the increase in consumption. Whether out of ignorance or bad faith, the move towards demagogic hysteria is easier in this area. In the Peruvian and US presidential campaigns, the opponents of Vargos Llosa and Bill Clinton used the argument that they had both smoked marijuana when they were young! The anti-prohibitionist movement is working on concrete proposals for the revision of the international conventions, especially the Vienna Convention of 1988, aware that the new policy cannot be pursued by isolated countries. In the framework of this new policy, there is a clear development of new ideas such as drug-related harm reduction and the regulation of cannabis and its derivates in the same way as tabacco and alcohol: free sale, with an absolute ban on advertising and on sale to minors. Just as fear of the reaction of the public to increasing numbers of immigrants should not make us lower the guard against racism and xenophobia, or just as the opinion polls in favour of the death penalty should not change anti-death penalty convictions, the risk of misinterpretation should not silence those who believe that the current drug policy needs to be revised all over the world. ---- end of IAL-Fax #18 ------ @destinatari file