Bulletin of the International Antiprohibitionist League on the world campaign for the reform of the UN Conventions on Drugs #.19 - YEAR I - 15 May 2003 Published in Dear readers of the LIAfax: Almost a month has passed since the member states of the United Nations discussed drug-related issues in Vienna. During the past weeks, the International Antiprohibitionist League has worked on a couple of scenarios to address the outcome of the 46th UN Commission on Narcotics, which re-launched the prohibitionist war against drugs and against all those people involved in the drug phenomenon. The solemn declaration issued by the 141 countries present in Vienna says: "We are gravely concerned about policies and activities in favour of the legalization of illicit narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances that are not in accordance with the international drug control treaties and that might jeopardize the international drug control regime" We need to disseminate our appeal for an anti-prohibitionist reform of current drug laws all over the world. We want to put an end to prohibition and to promote the legal regulation of the production, consumption and sale of those substances kept illegal by the three UN Conventions on drugs. At the same time, we will continue to distribute our study, which provides an independent reading of UN methods of collecting data, as well as a critical evaluation of the "progress" made by the international community in this field, to decision-makers in key institutions, starting from the permanent missions to the UN in Vienna and New York. We will continue to stress the need to open a serious and comprehensive debate, also at a technical level, on the accomplishments of the war on drugs. In the next few weeks, through the LIAfax we will also present other concrete initiatives to launch this new phase of our worldwide campaign to reform drug laws. Some will target the European elections, others will focus on producing countries or on harm reduction, others will stress the need to direct nonviolent civil disobediences to counter prohibition in a neo-Gandhian fashion. Recently, we also re-styled the webpage where our petition can be signed online. During the upgrade, some of the names of signatories were lost - please take a moment and double-check if your name, or the one of your friends, appears in the "signatories" section. Other sectors of the web have also been updated, such as for instance the section "chronology", where some 40 years of radical anti-prohibitionist actions are presented in a hypertext format, or "other news" where we have established a link with the "The Media Awareness Project" (www.mapinc.org), which is a "worldwide network dedicated to drug policy reform and to inform public opinion and promote balanced media coverage". We have also re-designed our banner that you can download at www.radicalparty.org/lia_paa_appeal/banners.htm. Knowing how proactive our readers can be, we are ready to expand our horizons turning the International Antiprohibitionist League into a sort of "open source" organization. Email us your ideas to lia@sensible.it letting us know about yourself and your organization, if you have one, and its activities. Our intention is to transform our appeal, that you have signed, and that has been endorsed by some 250 legislators from over 20 countries, a Manifesto to end prohibition in the 21st Century and a sort of turning point in our common struggle to end this bloody war on drugs. Read you soon, ciao Marco Perduca (mperduca@antiprohibitionist.org) Executive Director NEWS FROM THE WORLD : 2936 05/05/2003 AFGHANISTAN CULTIVATION DRUGPOLICY.ORG In spite of the nation-wide prohibition of opium cultivation, the peasants continue to cultivate them. This year Afghanistan should produce 4,000 metric tonnes and retain its position as World Producer Number One, a record last held before Taliban crop destructions in 2001. 2935 04/05/2003 SPAIN BEHAVIOUR YAHOO NEWS Source: a Congress on Family Violence held in Barcelona: Drug and alcohol consumption is present in 73% of all cases, even where it is not the actual cause of violent aggression. 2939 03/05/2003 THE WORLD INITIATIVES THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and THE BBC On Saturday, 3rd May, the by-now almost traditional 'Marijuana March' was held in about two hundred cities. The thickest were in London (about 1,500 persons) and Toronto (about 3,000). 2938 01/05/2003 U. S. A. LAWS DRUGPOLICY.ORG The California legislature passed a Resolution calling on the federal government to change existing laws to allow the use of controlled substances for medicinal purposes, to allow the several states to legislate in this area, and to exercise control over funds used for molesting seriously ill Californians. 2934 03/05/2003 CANADA OPINIONS THE TORONTO STAR The new Canadian drug policies are receiving much attention in the American media. US drug chief John Walters says that the reduction of penalties amounts to 'state-assisted suicide', and that Canada is 'becoming a major producer of addictive drugs'. 2937 04/05/2003 SPAIN POLITICS YAHOO Interior Minister Angel Acebes has succeeded in having 77.8% of confiscated drug traffic money channelled into programmes for aiding addicts and/or preventing addiction. 2940 05/05/2003 PORTUGAL RESEARCH PUBLICO According to a study by the Institute for the Study of Drugs and Addiction, the problem inflicts all of society, across all classes and levels. Nevertheless, the educated strata prefer simple substances like marijuana, the lower levels chose heroin and its similars. 2933 02/05/2003 UNITED KINGDOM STATISTICS THE BBC Source: The British Medical Journal: The death rate among cannabis and tobacco smokers in the U.K. is the much the same. Every year 120,000 out of 13 million tobacco smokers die, as do 30,000 out of 3 million cannabis smokers. 2932 02/05/2003 NORTH KOREA TRAFFIC ANSA US Border Patrol and Customs Chief Robert Bonner says that the North Korean government, too, is pushing heroin. Pyongyang is said to be earning hard currency this way. 2931 06/05/2003 THAILAND (Bangkok) THE WAR ON DRUGS BANGKOK POST Notwithstanding the triumphal crowing of the government, not much has changed in the 'dormitory' neighbourhood of Klong Toey. According to the residents, there was never any lack of drugs on the market. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Editor in Chief: Marco Perduca Director: Vincenzo Donvito Layout & Distribution: C.E.D. Roma The Liafax is published with a contribution of the Open Society Institute