Solidarity from Italy to Mambo Cannabis Social Club in Hasselt, Belgium

Dear friends and dear Michel Degens ,

We are amazed and outraged that in a country like Belgium, where Cannabis Social Clubs operate legally and in full transparency so as to become a model for other European countries (could this not be just the reason for the attack of the “local” police to Mambo? ) it is possible to cause such a severe damage to dozens of people including patients , with an action so devoid of logic and common sense. To you goes all our solidarity and our support.

We are an Italian Coordination of groups and associations , some of which are ENCOD members , which will manifest in the streets of Rome on 8 February 2014 to claim the illegality of the Italian law on drugs, in which there is no differentiation between substances nor proportionality, with the home cultivation of a plant being considered as a criminal act even for own consumption, even if one is ill. There are big differences with Belgium. The CSC’s in Italy must break down two walls at the same time, and we all hope that soon they will succeed. The attempt in Belgium to prevent or slow down a running practice which is since years considered legitimate, with the only result of fortifying a black market run by organized crime , thus exposing Belgian citizens to the all the risks involved, is not tolerable.

Our impression is that the Warriors on Drugs are like a defeated army that undermines harbours and ports before retiring, and the final surrender. Seen from here, the problem in Hasselt looks like one of those last spasms of a monster who dies while in Italy the battle is still to be fought in the courts and in civil society.

On behalf of the Italian friends we ask for the immediate return of the seized cannabis to medicinal and recreational members of Mambo CSC, and claim the immediate closure of the case because of the manifest illegal character of the operation.

Sincere greetings from the Italian movement

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