If you wish to support our letter to the Polish parliament, please send an email to:

drugusepreventiveact@politykanarkotykowa.com

That contains the following information:

1. name

2. surname

3. contact email

4. organization

5. country

Please include “Letter to the Polish Parliament” in the subject line.

Your signatures will be added to the letter (in Polish) which will be officially
presented to the Marshall’s office on 31 January 2011.

The Steering Committee of the Polish Drug Policy Network

11 years ago, Poland introduced a new drug law which punishes the possession of
the smallest quantities of drugs with prison sentences of up to even three
years. It is one of the most punitive laws in the EU. It has been clear for
several years that in most cases, this law targets occasional drug users and
drug dependent persons. Such a punitive law leads to young people found with,
for example, 0.5 grams of marijuana, being sent to court. This results in the
young person not only being sentenced, but also receiving a criminal record for
10 years, which shuts the door to higher education, scholarships abroad, loans
and also, which is important, finding a decent job (the majority of employers
demand a certificate stating a clean criminal record).

Three years ago, the Ministry of Justice, thanks to the incumbent Minister,
brought together a team of experts under the leadership of prof. Krzysztof
Krajewski (a criminologist and lecturer at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow)
which was tasked with drawing up a project to amend the law. Their aim was to
shift the focus from punishment to education, prevention, help and treatment for
drug dependent persons. This amendment has been lying on the shelf for over a
year.

The Polish Drug Policy Network, and several Polish organizations engaged in Harm
Reduction, assistance for drug dependent persons, and working in the HIV/AIDS
field, call for the project to be reviewed by the Parliamentary Committee as
soon as possible.

Regarding this, we are also requesting international organizations to support
our efforts and to sign the letter to the Marshall of the Sejm of the Republic
of Poland, Grzegorz Schetyna, to accelerate work on the amendment of the drug
law. We are collecting signatures until 30 January, 2011.

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