During the year 2005, ENCOD’s members were engaged in several events that introduced the seeds of a legal regulation on drugs. Here is an overview of these events and their results.
THE ENCOD BULLETINS IN 2005
January: A DRUG WAR BATTLE WE HAVE WON
February: THE NEW EU DRUG STRATEGY
March: DRUG PROHIBITION IN DEFENCE MODE
April: EUROPE AT CROSSROADS
June: THE ESCAPE FROM REALITY
July: FROM HARM REDUCTION TO BENEFIT PROMOTION
August: BUILDING THE CRITICAL MASS
September: FREEDOM TO FARM (for Mo Mowlam)
October: CLIMATE CHANGE
November: RISK MANAGEMENT
December: ZERO POINT ONE TOLERANCE
Early February 2005, it appeared that the UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, had given in to US pressure to eliminate the concept of harm reduction in its documents. ENCOD sent out a statement and participated in the Annual Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. Read the report of the ENCOD delegation
21-23 March 2005 Participation in the WILTON PARK Conference on Drug Abuse – How can it be reduced
Read the report of the ENCOD delegate.
21-24 March 2005 Participation in the INTERNATIONAL HARM REDUCTION ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE, Belfast.
Read the report of the ENCOD delegate.
7 May 2005: Participation in the Million Marijuana March
10 June 2005 ENCOD Speech at Legalize, Amsterdam.
23-25 JUNE 2005 ENCOD GENERAL ASSEMBLY, BERLIN
Read the Minutes
During summertime, two key activists in the global movement for the liberation of cannabis were persecuted by authorities: Marc Emery in Canada and Andre Fürst in Switzerland. ENCOD called for actions.
Later, Member of European Parliament Giusto Catania asked a question on Marc Emery to the European Commission, and a group of Czech activists started an open letter campaign to the Swiss President on the case of Andre Fürst.
In the end of July, a violent police action made an end to a peaceful dance event in the Czech republic. ENCOD sent out a press release.
From 7 to 9 September, ENCOD participated in the first global conference of REFORMA, our Latinamerican sister organisation, in Buenos Aires.
Read the report of the ENCOD delegate.
On 13 October, ENCOD was invited to intervene in the Ethical Platform meeting of the Pompidou Group, Council of Europe, Strassbourg.
Early November, an ENCOD delegation was invited to attend the Bi-Annual Conference of the Drug Policy Alliance in Long Beach, USA.
For our chairman, Farid Ghehioueche, the trip ended before it had even started. Read his report on a one day adventure.
In December, we were asked by a Brazilian judge to support an open letter campaign to ask the liberation of a 79-year old cancer patient imprisoned for drug trafficking. The campaign was successfull: the woman was released from prison two weeks after.
Do you want to participate or get more information on this campaign? Please contact the ENCOD secretariat.