PE/PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR
ANTIPROHIBITIONIST ACTION - PARLEMENTAIRES POUR
L'ACTION
ANTIPROHIBITIONNISTE - PARLAMENTARI PER L'AZIONE
ANTIPROIBIZIONISTA
--------------
DRUGS: 108 MEPs ASK FOR LEGAL
CONTROL
Bruxelles, 18 December 2002
108 MEPs from 7
Political groups and 13 Member States - among whom 2 EP
Vice-Presidents and
6 EP Committee Presidents - have tabled today a draft
recommendation to ask
for the Reform of the UN Conventions on Drugs. The
collection of signatures
among citizens is starting.
CAPPATO:"THE RADICAL ANTIPROHIBITIONIST
CAMPAIGN IN VIEW OF THE MEETING OF
THE UN ON APRIL 2003 IN VIENNA
START"
Declaration by Marco CAPPATO, Radical MEP of the Lista Bonino,
"Parliamentarians for Antiprohibitionist Action" co-ordinator promoter of
the initiative:
"The 108 MEPs have denounced that
prohibitionism is the cause of harm
because it is an obstacle to prevention,
only leads to blind repression and
causes rising profits to organised crime.
The positive results offered by
decriminalisation policies and medical
heroin prescription programmes are
underlined in the recommendation signed
by the 108 MEPs. The text of the
recommendation, as a petition, can be
signed by citizens at the
webpage http://www.radicalparty.org/lia_paa_appeal/
."
Proposal for a recommendation to the Council on the reform of
the UN
Conventions on drugs:
The European Parliament
(...)
1. Maintains that the drug prohibition policy stemming
from the UN
Conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988 is the actual cause of the
increasing
damage which the production, trafficking, sale and consumption of
illegal
substances inflict on entire sections of society, the economy as
well as
public institutions, thus undermining health, freedom and
individuals' lives,
2. Urges the Council and the Member States to
consider the positive results
obtained through the implementation of
policies in several countries, which
involve harm and risk reduction (in
particular through the administration
of substitute substances), the
decriminalisation of the consumption of
certain substances, the partial
decriminalisation of the sale of cannabis
and its derivatives, and the
medically controlled distribution of heroin,
3. Calls on the Council and
the Member States to take action in order to
make the fight against
organized crime and drugs trafficking more
effective, establishing a system
for the legal control and regulation of
the production, sale and consumption
of substances which are currently illegal;
4. Calls on the Council and
the Member States to initiate a process of
revision of the UN Conventions on
the occasion of the April 2003 Vienna
mid-term review conference on UN drugs
policies, in order to repeal or
amend the 1961 and 1971 Conventions, with
the aim of re-classifying
substances and providing for other uses of drugs
than only for medical and
scientific purposes to be legal, and to repeal the
1988 Convention."
------------------------------------
List of
Signatories (108):
PPE: Jorge Moreira Da Silva, Paolo Pastorelli
PSE:
José Maria Mendiluce Pereiro; Pasqualina Napoletano; Gianni Vattimo;
Paulo
Casaca; Maria Sornosa Martinez; Joke Swiebel; Helle Thorning-Schmidt;
Giovanni Pittella; Renzo Imbeni, EP Vice-President ; Michael Cashman; Luís
Marinho; Rosa Diez Gonzales; Carmen Cerdeira Morterero; Joaquim Vairinhos;
Adeline Hazan; Giorgio Ruffolo: Fiorella Ghilardotti; Guido Sacconi;
Michiel Van Hulten; Claudio Fava; Demetrio Volcic; Elena Paciotti;
Hans-Peter Martin, EU-Slovakia Delegation President; Dorette Corbey;
Margrietus van den Berg; Ieke van den Burg; Emilio Menendez del Valle;
Sérgio Sousa Pinto; António Campos; Claudio Martelli; Manuel Antonio dos
Santos; Elena Valenciano;
ELDR: Chris Davies; Luciana Sbarbati;
Joan Vallvé; Marco Formentini; Elly
Ploij-van Gorsel, EU-China Delegation
President; Maria Johanne Sanders-Ten
Holte; Lousewies Van Der Laan;
Isidoro Sánchez García; Andrew Duff; Sarah
Ludford; Bob van den Bos;
Frédérique Ries; Nick Clegg; Jules Maaten; Johan
Vanhecke;
V: Daniel
Cohn-Bendit, Co-President of the Green Group; Kathalijne
Buitenweg; Alain
Lipietz; Miquel Mayol i Raynal; Alima Boumediene-Thiery;
Helene Flautre;
Claude Turmes; Alexander De Roo; Danielle Auroi; Jan
Dhaene; Patsy
Sörensen; Heide Rühle; Yves Pietrasanta; Johannes
Voggenhuber; Joost
Lagendijk, EU-Turkey Delegation President; Didier Rod;
Eurig Wyn; Raina A.
Mercedes Echerer; Caroline Lucas; Neil MacCormick; Jean
Lambert; Monica
Frassoni, Co-President of the Green Group; Bart Staes,
EU-Russai Delegation
President; Nelly Maes; Reinhold Messner; Paul Lannoye;
Marie Anne Isler
Béguin; Pierre Jonckheer; Hiltrud Breyer; Patricia Mc
Kenna; Giorgio Celli;
Theo Bouwman, Social Affairs Committee President;
Gérard Onesta, EP
Vice-President; Matti Wuori;
GUE: Pernille Frahm; Alain Krivine; Genevieve
Fraisse; Ole Krarup; Giuseppe
Di Lello; Helmut Markov; Lucio Manisco; Luigi
Vinci; Erik Meijer; Fodé
Sylla; Roseline Vachetta; Pedro Marset Campos;
Fausto Bertinotti; Armando
Cossutta; André Brie; Laura Gonzáles
Álvarez
NI: Marco Cappato; Gianfranco Dell'Alba; Emma Bonino; Marco Pannella;
Benedetto della Vedova; Maurizio Turco; Olivier Dupuis; Peter
Sichrovsky
EDD: Ulla Sandbaek