Lets liberalise through our human rights-Let us cultivate and spread the true infos. Break a leg to all healthy cannabis connoisseurs
Massimiliano Derviso 1/08/2016

Some years ago the game of poker was illegal, but in the United States of America the first web platforms of Texas Hold’em were born with the difference that, unlike the typical game of poker, they could be controlled in restricting the level of gamble, in a few words a responsible use, so me and my father we had the idea to open one in Italy but the response by the government, the AAMs (Agency of Customs and Monopolies) was quick and firm… absolutely not possible! It happened a bit later that in Italy those foreign game platforms were banned and then after a little while the Italian ones were born under state monopoly.

So, at the time of things being discussed at the Parliament, the ones still amazed about the troubles made by the Italian government and those still believing in it, are living on the moon, yes with the 5 Stars Movement we have new concrete experiences but, if they don’t avail themselves of qualified people on cannabis, what can they propose – I ask myself. There is such a lack of info in Italy in this field that the people still think that cannabis is a drug, whereas in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Israel and many other countries they talk about it with school kids, they tell the 4000 years old history of this plant, its therapeutical virtues, its derivates and much more… I remember that 16/17 years ago, I was in Bologna for some workshops on computer programming when I saw at the Faculty of Mathematics a leaflet inviting participation at the same faculty, to a meeting with some MP’s like Fini (the new-fascist leader that pushed on 2006 the legal equalling of heroin with cannabis N.o.T.) and I don’t remember well who else was there to advocate on the argument of soft drugs, clearly, but of course I attended and was shocked… there at my side, youngsters were proposing to the government to legalise LSD, also because for them it was a soft drug °_°. Furthermore, for a totally recreational use, they were fighting for the right to use it in discos!!!! If I am not wrong that was the time when the law Fini Giovanardi was born… so f** it, we the Italian people we can’t even complain, we don’t unite on no idea we are individualists and not capable of up-taking a common basic thought. Therefore I understood that in Italy there is precisely a lack of basic information on many substances and that there is lots of confusion in the term: drug, but we are one of the few countries in the world that are so hypocritical to be the best world consumers and growers of cannabis and then in our country, we go under the feet of politicians like the Internal Affairs Minister Mr. Alfano rather than “take the risk” and show our face, since as a matter of fact Mr. Alfano is the spokesperson of the underworld who hinders the cannabis liberalisation as much as he can. But for him, is it just by interest or is it maybe a question of life or death?

In every region the State is coming! Very well, where you cultivate you sell and use cannabis and I have always asked myself, if they believe it is so harmful why don’t they go there and close everything down in one day, as they have done with contraband cigarettes? When I was living in Sidney, an Australian friend asked me: Massimo, do you have legal cannabis in Naples? And me, quite overturned, I answered: absolutely not! Why do you ask me, maybe you are mixing up Naples with another place like Amsterdam? But he replied: “no no, I am talking about the area of Secondigliano where many friends told me they bought it freely…” So now, I think that the diffusion of grass is larger than I thought, so lets make a mathematical calculation, there is no war against cannabis and no implementation of the law, so we can consume it with a tolerance of a couple of grams, but where do we take it from if we are not allowed to grow it? A simple, great point that shows us the corruption of the State versus the interests of the black market… as a matter of fact I would like to add that, cannabis growers somewhere in Southern Italy don’t face as the major problem the “legal forces”(the police) but another one. Yes but in Italy the therapeutical use is permitted.. there is no other thing that makes me more confused than this argument… how is it possible to prescribe cannabis in a country where there is no therapeutical research nor is there use of any foreign experts in the field?

I have always had the opinion that it is the people that represents the culture of one country and that its government does not represent it… and that’s where we lose, for real in Italy we wait for the laws but we don’t propose them, we fight for our rights but we don’t know them, we don’t unite but we look for the superhero.

A few days ago I was talking with a shop owner and his friend and it came out that they found their 14 year old sons smoking a joint, they were shocked so I felt like a duty to give them some infos about the magic plant, the more conscious of the two became very positive on the new things he did not know, whereas the other was looking at me with hostility, so at the end he asked me and my father a tip on what to tell his son or how to behave, I thought it over for a second and then I told him: tell him about the 1000 non recreational uses, explain him that it is a plant that can also be used for building, tell him that seriously ill people must use it specifically and under the control of qualified people, tell him the whole 4.000 years truth and he will consider it as a normal thing, so he could stop smoking it because it will not be a temptation or a trespassing of the law for him, he will acquire the right information and possibly as grown-up person he will make a responsible use to relax, to sleep or to avoid heavy medicines, possibly not smoking but using a creme… I see in his eyes a great relief and almost happiness because that meant that the son is not a drug addict… but his friend turned him down by telling him it was all bullshit and that if he finds out that his son was smoking weed again, it will go bad

By Massimiliano Derviso

News from the secretary

Encod is a democratic organisation that, every second year at the General Assembly, chooses its Steering Committee out of its members & drug policy activists.
We are planning to organise very soon this Assembly, also in order to overcome the difficulties that arose after the sudden death of our coordinator Joep Oomen. His presence and his work will be severely missed in and outside our membership. His work has helped grass roots drug activists throughout the world to overcome extremism and corruption that jeopardise civil society organizations who are active in the drug reform movement, in order to be part of the solution rather than of the problem.
In this sense we are going to interrogate ourselves in the next months about what will be Encod’s mission in the future.
As a matter of fact, the latest UN meetings marked a turning point in the latitude of the global policies, because despite the lack of any courage by these institutions the world is definitely changing as to drug policies.
For instance in Italy where the Parliament is about to decide to either keep cannabis in the hands of the mafia or to opt for a rather imperfect form of weakened state monopoly.
As usual, Encod, thanks to the support of activists, researchers and enterprises will have to steer the present small vessel through these turbulent waters to help activists throughout Europe in their common fight for a better world, that includes the liberation of plants and their users.

In this sense, the struggle continues!

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