From Cora.Belgique@agora.stm.it Sat Feb 28 14:22:08 1998 Date: Wed, 29 Oct 97 11:52:5 ITA From: Cora.Belgique@agora.stm.it To: sky@sky.org Subject: < ANTIPROHIBITIONISTS OF THE ENTIRE WORLD...> ANTIPROHIBITIONISTS OF THE ENTIRE WORLD... Antiprohibitionist action report October 28, 1997 - (Special Edition) ======================================== CORA | | Association of Radical | the Transnational Antiprohibitionist | Radical Party Coordination | ======================================== OLD - Observatory of laws on drugs ------------------------- PAA - PARLAMENTARIAN FOR ANTIPROHIBITIONNIST ACTION European campaign for the revision of international conventions ======================================== Via di Torre Argentina 76 00186 ROME Tel:+39-6-68.97.91 Fax:+39-6-68.80.53.96 E-mail: cora.italia@agora.stm.it ________________________________________ Rue Belliard 97 c/o European Parliament Rem 5.08 1047 BRUSSELS Tel:+32-2-230.41.21 - 646.26.31 Fax:+32-2-230.36.70 E-mail: cora.belgique@agora.stm.it ________________________________________ >>> CORAnet http://www.agora.stm.it/coranet/ ======================================== >>> DRUGS: MARCO PANNELLA AND 6 OTHER ANTI-PROHIBITION MILITANTS ARRESTED WHILE DISTRIBUTING HASHISH TO PASSERS-BY Rome, 28 October 1997 Last Saturday, during an anti-prohibition protest organised by the Pannella Anti-Prohibition and Referendum List, held in the Via del Corso, in the centre of Rome, Marco Pannella and six other anti-prohibition militants (Rita Bernardini, Antonio Borrelli, Alessandro Caforio, Pier Giuseppe Camici, Cristiana Pugliese and Mauro Zanella) were arrested for distributing hashish to passers-by. For the seventh time in less than 2 years, the militants of the Pannella list have deliberately violated the law on drugs, after having announced publicly the meaning and manner of the initiative to the police forces and the judicial authorities. Since 1995, 14 anti-prohibition activists in all have been indicted for the free distribution of hashish. The first conviction dates to last September 19th, when Pannella was sentenced to 4 months of imprisonment, commuted to 8 months on probation, for an action committed in August 1995 on the market at the Porta Portese in Rome. In Italy, another 35 thousand persons are arrested every year for violation of the drug prohibition law, and the proceeds from the traffic of illegal drugs amount to about 40,000 billion lire. For 4 years, the Parliament has refused to discuss a bill introduced by popular initiative to legalise soft drugs submitted in 1993 by the Radical Party and the Radical Anti-prohibition Co-ordination. Furthermore, in 1995 the Constitutional Court prohibited a referendum on the same topic, promoted by the Pannella list and supported by another 500,000 voters. Consequently, Marco Pannella, in an open letter to the judges who convicted him, has justified the use of instruments of non-violence and civil disobedience. " ... I have been waging a public struggle for 30 years already against the growth and expansion of the calamity of drugs.... Now, it is necessary to fight against drugs, against this calamity, with drugs; against criminal laws and jurisprudence, with the crimes themselves, which they produce and impose; against unjust incarceration, with imprisonment. We have and cherish the Socratic hope - which antedates the Gandhian hope - that the "republic" faced with the scandal of unjust laws or sentences, will reform and improve them." We are attaching a brief chronology of the anti-prohibition initiatives taken by the Radical Party and the Pannella List. We are also including an information kit on the campaign to legalise non-addictive drugs. ________________________________ Chronology of the main radical and anti-prohibition initiatives ________________________________ 1965 - First public, non-violent actions against prohibitionist legislation. The Radical Party organises "counter-inaugurations" of the judicial year throughout Italy and denounces the impotence of the repressive laws against the dissemination of banned drugs. 1975 - After 3 years of campaigning to abolish penal sanctions for the consumption of drugs, Pannella forces the policy to arrest him, by smoking a joint in public. He organises the mobilisation from prison, because the Parliament is discussing the bill which, among other things, introduces the decriminalisation of the personal consumption of drugs. He refuses to ask for a release on bail until the Presidents of both houses of Parliament pledge and guarantee to discuss and put to the vote the reform act within 4 months. The act is approved within a few months. 1979 - On October 4th, Angiolo Bandinelli, radical alderman of Rome, is arrested for having smoked a joint during a session of the Town Council; the next day, Jean Fabre, the secretary of the Radical Party, is arrested, as he carried out the same gesture at a press conference. 1980 - The Radical Party collects more than 500,000 signatures on a referendum for the legalisation of soft drugs; the referendum was to be held in the spring of 1981. In January of that year, the Constitutional Court declared it inadmissible. 1981 - On November 4th was arrested Luigi de Gatto, a medical doctor, member of the Federal Council of the Radical party for having prescribed morphine to addicted patients, and thus for having violated the drugs act in the name of the freedom of therapy. 1988 - Pannella is among the proponents of CORA - (Italian acronym for) the Radical Anti-Prohibition Co-ordination, the association of the Radical Party which since deals with the initiatives to provide information on drug policies. 1989 - Pannella is among the founders of the LIA - (Italian acronym for) the International Anti-Prohibition League. 1990 - On November 5th, Marco Taradash and Emma Bonino are arrested for having distributed in the street sterile syringes to drug addicts without medical prescription, to denounce the responsibility of American legislation on the dissemination of the HIV virus among the addict population. 1991 - On April 15th, Taradash and Bonino repeat the distribution of syringes in New York, and are arrested again. 1992 - CORA sponsors a referendum for the abolition of penal sanctions for the consumption of drugs, and for the recognition of the freedom of therapy in treating addiction. In 1990, the drugs act was actually amended; the simple consumption of drugs became again a criminal offence, and the treatment of addicts with substitute drugs was prohibited. 1993 - The referendum was defeated by 52% of the votes. CORA introduces in Parliament two bills of popular initiative, accompanied with 50,000 signatures of voters; one for the legalisation of soft drugs, the other for the reform of policies on AIDS. 1994 - Pannella re-launches the campaign to legalise soft drugs. While in the course of the campaign to collect signatures for a new referendum on this topic, on three occasions, between September and December, Marco Pannella distributes hashish in public free of charge. Some of the top leaders of the Movement of the Pannella Reformatory Club also take part in the initiatives: Rita Bernardini, Benedetto della Vedova, Mimmo Pinto, Vittorio Pezzuto, and Paolo Vigevano. 1996 - On January 5th, more than 500,000 signatures on the referendum for the legalisation of soft drugs are deposited. The Constitutional Court rejects an exception of constitutionality to the drugs act, in order on the laws on cannabis, raised by one of the judges responsible for the proceedings against Pannella. Pannella resigns from the European Parliament so that he can be tried, and if convicted, to serve his sentence. 1996 - On September 10th, the Turin Town Council approves a motion tabled by the head of Cora Camelo Palma, calling for the immediate legalisation of soft drugs and the controlled administration of heroin to addicts for therapeutic purposes. In a few months, similar documents are presented and approved in some twenty seats of local government in Italy. 1997 - On January 30th, the Italian Constitutional Court declares the referendum on drugs inadmissible citing international agreements on narcotics or psychotropic substances. 1997 - On September 19th, Marco Pannella is sentenced by the Rome Court to 4 months imprisonment commuted to 8 months on probation, for distributing hashish at the Porta Portese as part of the initiatives of civil disobedience in support of the campaign to legalise soft drugs. Leaders and militants of the Pannella List and the transnational Radical Party, distribute hundreds of small bags containing hashish. On October 25th, the police arrest Marco Pannella and Rita Bernardini, two of the leading members of the Pannella List, and five 9ther anti-prohibition militants: Antonio Borrelli, Alessandro Caforio, Pier Giuseppe Camici, Cristiana Pugliese, and Mauro Zanella. ^Z