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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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 Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:43 am Post subject: ENCOD: Thursday 21 april at the European Parliament Hearing |
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This is the speech that ENCOD will give 21 april at the European Parliament Hearing...
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In June this year the European Union will adopt a new Action Plan on Drugs,
for the period 2005 to 2008. Until today, the elaboration process of this
Action Plan, including discussion of the various draft texts, has taken
place behind closed doors in meetings where only officials from the EU
Member States and the European Commission are allowed.
In October last year, the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug
Addiction, the research centre that receives 7,5 millions of EURO per year
to investigate the drugs issue in the EU, published the results of an
evaluation of the former Action Plan on Drugs, which covered the period
from 2000 to 2004. These results leave very strong doubts over the degree
to which this Plan had been effective in achieving its goals. The
prevalence of drug use had not been reduced, availability had not
decreased, and concerning drugs related crime and health damage it was
impossible to say if things had improved or become worse.
The draft version of the new Action Plan which was released by the
Commission in February 2005 has, in many respects, the same goals as the
former plan. In the words of the Commission, the plan is said to "target in
particular those areas that the evaluation highlighted as needing further
progress". In short, an approach is to be continued that has been judged
ineffective by the institution established to inform authorities about the
impact of their policies.
Drug policy has a huge impact on European society. Current drug laws lead
to the criminalisation of millions of law abiding citizens, without any
evidence that this is an effective way of reducing harm caused to public
safety. Meanwhile, due the illegal environment, drug consumption often
takes place in unsafe conditions and irresponsible ways that create
significant harm to the health of both users and their surroundings.
It looks as if authorities are trying to ignore the evidence that their
policies do not work, while they are supposed to carry out policies that
are based on evidence of what works and what does not. We, and here I am
speaking on behalf of a large majority of EU tax payers, should not
continue with policies that we know do not work.
There are some positive things to say about European drug policy, but
therefore we need to look at the local level. In many cities in Europe,
legal, medical and political authorities have started to listen to people
who are in daily contact with reality on the streets, who are aware of the
impact of policies on the lives of common people. As a result they have
started to understand that drug policies based on the dogma of prohibition
are counterproductive. They have embraced harm reduction as the basic
principle of their policies. If you read carefully the annual reports that
are published by the EMCDDA, it becomes obvious that measures such as
needle exchange, maintenance based therapies, user rooms and the controlled
distribution of heroin are the real reason for the few success stories that
can be told on current drug policy. On the other hand, in countries where
political acceptance of harm reduction is still low, like for instance in
the Baltic countries, we face an alarming HIV/AIDS epidemic. To counter it,
the European Union should continue to adhere to harm reduction as a crucial
element of drug policies.
It is important to stress that harm reduction was not invented by
politicians or authorities. It has been the initiatives of citizens, often
working underground, risking to face the law at any time, that have started
harm reduction. These citizens, drug users or people who care for them, are
the true architects of a new European drug policy, and it is time that
authorities realise this. Precisely because of the stigmatisation of drugs
and drug users, the change in the way we look at this issue necessarily had
to come from below, from inside society, as a way to resolve a well hidden
trauma. Firstly at an individual level among consumers themselves, then
among their family members and their friends, then at the level of local
and national authorities, and finally at the supranational level. Today we
have arrived at this level.
Since the first reflections on a European Union policy on drugs started, in
this Parliament in 1986, it has been stressed that citizens should be
consulted and involved in the future development of policies.
Unfortunately, in the past twenty years, the European Council and the
European Commission have never put this engagement into practice. As a
result, public and even parliamentary attention has been kept away from the
disastrously negative outcomes of current policies, so a discussion about
the lessons that can be learned from them has not taken place.
Today Europe is still involved in a war on drugs, or better said a war on
some drugs, or even better said: a war on some people involved with some
drugs. As we in Europe should have learned by now, wars do not tend to have
real winners. The question is not if drugs are dangerous. Of course all
drugs can be dangerous. The question is if society wins or loses by
prohibiting them.
To answer that question, European authorities should start listening to the
voices of citizens. To those of drug users in candidate countries like
Bulgaria, where possession of less than one gram of any illegal drug,
including cannabis, can lead to a jail term of 15 years. Of health workers
who try to restore the full citizenship of drug users as a key objective in
their treatment, and find out how drug policies undermine these efforts. Of
scientists who have produced thousands of pages containing evidence for the
use that could be made of plants like hemp or coca leaves to ensure global
food security and sustainable development. Of relatives who have seen how
drug laws have made criminals out of their loved ones.
On behalf of all of them, today we offer you to share a peacepipe with that
part of civil society affected by a policy that has proven to be, and
continues to be a costly, failing and counter-productive affair. What is
needed is a pragmatic public health and public order response, based on the
recognition that there never has been nor is likely to be a society without
some form of drug use; that most such use will either be recreational or
medicinal; and that a health infrastructure will always be needed for that
minority of individuals whose use of drugs becomes problematic; that
empowering people through health promotion and realistic drug education,
rather than alarming them through messages of fear, is a much more
effective means of restoring social cohesion.
With the approval of the Catania report, the European Parliament has
obtained a first step towards this goal. The report is a huge achievement
to obtain political consensus about what should be the key direction of
intelligent drug policies: harm reduction, creating space for the positive
uses of drugs, and last but not least: involvement of civil society in the
policy making process. To ignore such a text would deny the European
Parliament its main purpose, and this at a time where European citizens are
called to vote for a new Constitution. It would give an extremely negative
example of what kind of democracy the European Union pretends to be.
Thank you
Joep Oomen
On behalf of ENCOD
SIGN THE PETITION FOR A CHANGE IN EU DRUG POLICIES NOW:
http://action.encod.org
EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES (ENCOD) Lange Lozanastraat 14 2018 Antwerpen Belgium Tel. 00 32 (0)3 237 7436
Mobile: + 33 6 148 156 79 (Farid Ghehioueche)
Fax. 00 32 (0)3 237 0225
E-mail:encod:at:glo.be
Website: www.encod.org
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More information on the 21 April EU hearing here:
http://www.thc-ministry.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3999
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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 3:11 am Post subject: |
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First news from the hearing;
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>Dear friends,
Today's hearing went rather OK. Tomorrow there will be made a press
release. Here is a message we received tonight from the assistant of Giusto
Catania who was most involved in the organisation of the hearing.
Best wishes,
Joep
*************************************************************
the impact of this day is still so fresh that I guess we will need some
time to really evaluate the political step made today and the consequences
that hopefully this will have. But beside this (we will probably meet also
with Giusto in the next weeks to discuss together), I would like already
now to thank you sincerly not only for the concrete help you always gave
to our work but expecially for the "new fresh air" that ENCOD was able to
bring in the european institutions through its participation to this event.
Working outside the EU institutions, many ENCOD members might not have
realized completely how revolutionary was this day: it was the first time
ever since the Parliament exists that civil society could take the floor
in an official committee meeting of the parliament (not even the staff
members are ever allowed to take the floor during official meetings!) and
it was subsequently the first time that the members of the parliament had
a real debate with civil society, in a free way. It was thus the first
time that a debate was led out of the diplomatic language of the
institutional "jeu de rôles" and also the first time that institutional
representatives like the european commission were obliged to answer to
unsual (for them!) questions.
For all this (and a lot more) I wish to thank you and all and every single
ENCOD member who spent their time and energies to come to the hearing,
making this bet possible. Please transmit all of them our sincere thanks
for their contribution.
21 april truly made the difference! :-)
See you soon
Chiara
*************************************************************
SIGN THE PETITION FOR A CHANGE IN EU DRUG POLICIES NOW: http://action.encod.org ENCOD - European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies Lange Lozanastraat 14 2018 Antwerpen Belgium Tel +32 3 237 7436 Fax +32 3 237 0225 encod@glo.be www.encod.org
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Rev.Holden Greene
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 482
Location: us
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 3:18 am Post subject: |
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cant wait to hear more
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"look...the people you are looking for are the people you depend on.we cook your meals , we haul your trash ,we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances,we guard you while you sleep"
Tyler Durdan |
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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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Another report from the 21 April hearing...
| Andria Efthimiou wrote: |
It was an interesting and extraordinary scene to have the dreadlocked guys around the suits in an otherwise 'diplomatic session.' NGO delegates, mostly organisational or individual members of www.encod.org came to take part in a drug policy hearing organised by ENCOD, a major part of whose remit was to remind the EU, as a democratic institution, that it has a responsibility to consult with Civil Society when designing drug policy. It was even more heartening to hear Olivier Hartman of an Illicit drug user union in Belgium acknowledge, along with the panelists, that we do indeed have to help kids not get in a mess with drugs for as citizens, we have both collective as well as individual responsibilities.
We had our man behind the camera, Thorri and then there were NGO delegates and ENCOD members from Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the U.K. Other NGO delegates included Pien Metal of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Marco Perduca of the International Prohibitionist League(IAL), both of whom were speakers along with ENCODs coordinator,Joep Oomen. Mr Barra of the International Redcross Federation, who is an ally of harm reduction, also spoke passionately about stigma kills more people than the drugs themselves; he also addressed the AIDS plenary in Vienna at the annual Commission on Narcotic Drugs last month advocating strongly for NEPs as well as maintenance substitution therapies. I liked him..it transpired that he had worked with drug users for 3Oyrs.
Franco Frattini, an Italian European Commissioner of Justice and Home Affairs informed the gathering that the parliament was "homing in on this issue due to citizens interest." Bob Keizer of the Pomidou Group, Council of Europe went as far as to say that many useless prevention interventions were still being applied, adding that ethics and human rights must be brought into the equation when designing drug policy for Europe. He stipulated two other observations; 1) that all of the functions of drug policy must be implemented and 2) by different organisations with a recognition of these different organisations roles in regard to the EU action plan, which will be ratified in June. He noted regretfully that the WHO as well as the Pompidou group had not been mentioned in this plan which was a serious oversight and "missed opportunity."
Paul Griffiths of the EMCDDA, spoke of the seriousness of the HCV pandemic amongst IDUs and that this had implications for the health budgets of EU member states. Later, Mr Barra referred to some of the harsher behaviour-therapy therapeutic comunities as having led to the deaths of some IDUs and implored the assembled MEPs gathered not to use the issue of drug dependency as a political football.
Mr made it clear that there must be a more open debate and the Pompidou group were willing to collaborate on a report into the effectiveness (or not) of our current drug policies. By the time it came for Oomen to speak on behalf of the ever-growing ENCOD network, we were all well aware that at least 80% of the assembled throng were allies if not advocates of non-criminalising drug policies.
Joep Oomen began his speech by noting that the 2000-2004 report of the EMCDDA left serious doubts on the likelihood of achieving the goals of reduced drug use, blood borne diseases (BBDs) and crime at this point. He reminded us that many of the most effective harm reduction strategies had been initiated by drug-using citizens and their carers and that they were the true architects of new drug policies. He asked us all to consider how/if prohibitive drug policy worked, when, for example, in Bulgaria, one can got o jail for 15 yrs for possession of less than a gramme of any illicit drug..a little later Dr Frederick Polak asked what the official reasons for not re-evaluating drug policy given that five out of six of the major indicators had failed.
During the discussion, Massimo Barra noted the schizophrenic response of the UN bodies where UNODC are railroaded mostly by U.S drug warrior crusadors to maintain repressive policies, while at the same time UNAIDS is saying that NEPs are an important component of drug treatment. The Mayor of Maastricht said, "I am not asking for a complete liberalisation of the drug laws but proper regulation at regional levels and under strict quantities re supply which would eventually lead to the elimination of illegal supplies." He added that many other Mayors agreed with him, but were afraid to say so publically.
Ms Metal asked "if alternative development in Latin America is working as the UNODC report, why is that peasant coca growers are throwing stones at the police, who tell them we are only obeying orders of our superiors." Franco Corleone, of Forum Droghe, in his endearing empassioned way noted that the UNODC counts of on verbal moral manipulations ad infinitum, acknowledging that of the entire Italian prison population, 39% are drug "offenders." He stated emphaticallly that law should not be confused with morality and that individual nation states should be allowed to decide their own local/national policies.
Towards the end Marco Perduca asked us to consider that there are various ways in which the UN drug conventions are illegal in that they abuse cultural and religious rights. During question time, PWA, Luiz Mendao of the European AIDS Treatment Group, said that it is essential that the the European Commission do not ignore the results and recommendations of the European Parliament´s Catania Report..
Carel Edwards, head of the anti-drug coordinating unit of the European Commission stipulated that Civil Society had overlooked building consensus at the nation state level and was "punching above" their weight. He said that we cannot demand supply reduction at the expense of demand reduction; we have to tread carefully so that the Plan does not end up in the bin ultimately..As for the involvement of civil society, he acknowledged that it was time we were adequately included and that we would be included in the future. He also instructed that we spend some efforts educating the Council of Europe.
Finally it was the turn of the namesake of this report: Giusto Catania. He asked us to consider that there appears to be a democratic rift between the Council and the Commission on a European level but that we should be hopeful that a scientific approach to drug policy is, at least, now being promoted. He recommended that Europe take a more community approach to drugs, with the net effect of improving relationships between us all groups and members of civil society.
As Carel Edwards left the stage, ENCOD member, Christine, presented a peace-pipe to him, signed by various celebrities, saying "we present this to you with our sincere hope that we can work together to end the ´war on drugs.´ Somewhat befuddled, Mr Edwards answered that he did not believe that there was any kind of drug war going on between us and him but asked us to consider less political lobbying of the EU bodies but that what they breally needed was more information and data supporting the legislation we wish they would pursue. Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt took this straight to heart and ran up the aisles demanding Beckley Foundation docments from Mr. Trace, but when she returned to present them to Carel, he said he said he had already seen them. Some other European drug policy reform obssessive had got there first!
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Rev.Holden Greene
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 482
Location: us
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 1:25 am Post subject: |
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nice
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"look...the people you are looking for are the people you depend on.we cook your meals , we haul your trash ,we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances,we guard you while you sleep"
Tyler Durdan |
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