THE ENCOD LETTERS TO MEMBERS ON THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, concerning the debate on a new EU Strategy on Drugs

Antwerpen, 7 December 2004

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

On 15 December 2004, the European Parliament will vote on the Recommendation to the Council concerning the European strategy on fighting drugs (2005-2012). This recommendation (report of Mr. Giusto CATANIA MEP) was approved by the Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on 2 December 2004.

As a European platform of organizations representing health practitioners, researchers, drug users, human rights activists and drug policy experts we wish to ask you approve this report.

The Drug Strategy of the European Union can thus far be characterized as an incoherent set of measures that intend to fight a social and public health issue out from a law enforcement perspective. The results of this strategy have been extremely poor.

The official evaluation made of the former EU antidrug Action Plan (2000-2004) clearly demonstrates that in none of the objectives established at the start of this strategy has there been achieved any positive results. This evaluation has been published on 26 October 2004 in the Snapshot document from the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, page 92-104.

As citizens who are confronted with the drug issue on a daily base, we strongly believe that the goals of drug policies need to be realistic. As long as the overall objective of these policies is to obtain a drug-free world, they will fail. These policies themselves have become a major cause of harm to public health and safety, sound economy, national sovereignty etc.

Therefore, we believe the European Parliament should insist on the urgent need for a coherent strategy concerning the drug issue. Co-ordinated efforts at Community, national and regional level are necessary in order improve the lives of millions of people who are affected by drug policies in the European Union. Consultation of civil society organisations and experts working on the ground level is crucial to the success of this strategy. The recommendations in the Catania report are useful suggestions to start implementing a coherent strategy on drugs, aimed at reducing harms and increasing benefits. Therefore we wish to express our strong support to the report and ask you to approve it in its current version.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any question or suggestion you may have. During the days of the Strasbourg session on 14 and 15 December, a small delegation of ENCOD members will be present in the Parliament to give additional information. We look forward to your comments, and to the result of your debate.

Sincerely yours,

On behalf of ENCOD,

Joep Oomen

Please copy this letter and send it to your MEP. For the adresses, see the EP website, fill in under Committees: Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and click search. You will get a complete list of names and other contact information, such as telephone and fax.

Antwerpen, 19 November 2004

Dear member of the Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,

On 2 December, your Committee will vote on the draft report of Mr. Giusto CATANIA concerning the European strategy on fighting drugs (2005-2012).

As a European platform of organizations representing health practitioners, researchers, drug users, human rights activists and drug policy experts we wish to inform you of our opinion concerning the amendments that have been proposed by various Members of the LIBE Committee and ask you to take this opinion into account when deciding your vote.

The outcome of the debate on Thursday is of great importance. The European Parliament report can send a strong signal to European authorities and citizens alike that Europe is ready for a turning point in its approach to the drugs issue.

A political taboo can be broken. For the first time in history, a parliament of such high reputation as yours may express the need to end conventional thinking about drugs.

As has been the case with most national drug strategies that have been implemented in the Member States, the European Union Drug Strategy can thus far be characterized as a rather incoherent set of measures that intend to fight a social and public health issue out from a law enforcement perspective. There cannot be much disagreement about the fact that the results of this strategy have been extremely poor (see the evaluation report of the former EU Drug Action Plan 2000-2004).

As people who are confronted with the drug issue on a daily base, we strongly believe that the goals of drug policies need to be realistic. As long as the overall objective of these policies is to obtain a drug-free world, they will fail. What is more, these policies will themselves become a major cause of harm to public health and safety, sound economy, national sovereignty etc.

Therefore we strongly disagree with the following amendments proposed to the draft report of Mr. Catania and ask you to reject them:

26 – 33 – 38 – 39 – 47 – 56 – 57 – 58 – 60 – 61 – 62 – 63 – 65 – 66 – 71 – 72 – 73 – 75 – 81 – 83 – 85 – 96 – 105

On the other hand, we believe the European Parliament report should insist on the urgent need for a coherent strategy. Co-ordinated efforts at Community, national and regional level are necessary in order to reduce drug problems and improve the lives of millions of people who are the target of drug policies inside and outside Europe. Consultation of civil society organisations and experts working on the ground level is crucial to the success of this strategy. To respect the human rights of individual citizens should be considered as the common denominator of European drug policies.

Therefore, we agree with the following amendments and ask you to approve them:

23 – 24 – 27 – 28 – 30 – 31 – 34 – 35 – 37 – 40 – 41 – 42 – 52 – 54 – 55 – 59 – 64 – 69 – 70 – 74 – 76 – 77 – 78 – 80 – 82 – 84 – 86 – 87 – 88 – 89 – 90 – 92 – 93 – 94 – 95 – 97 – 98 – 100 – 101 – 102 – 103 – 104 – 106

We will not comment the other amendments. In our opinion they are neither positive nor negative. It depends on how they will be interpreted.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any question or suggestion you may have. We look forward to your comments, and to the result of your debate.

Sincerely yours,

On behalf of ENCOD,

Joep Oomen

Antwerpen, 31 October 2004

Dear member of the Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,

I am writing to you as a representative of ENCOD, a collective of non-governmental organizations representing a large contingent of European citizens who are affected and concerned by current drug policies, and who wish to replace them with policies that are more just and more effective.

I sincerely hope you will be able to give fair and thoughtful consideration to our suggestions for the debate on the new Drug Strategy of the European Union, that will take place in your committee during the coming weeks.

It is important to take into account in this debate the results of the evaluation of the former EU Drug Action Plan 2000-2004. This evaluation has been published on 26 October 2004 in the Snapshot document from the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, page 92-104.

From this document it becomes clear that in none of the six headline objectives articulated by the current Action Plan has it been possible to find convincing evidence of any positive results. Besides, the necessary technical work in order to develop common definitions and instruments measuring the drugs phenomenon has not been finished yet, eleven years after the establishment of the EMCDDA in Lisbon.

In our view, what has to be avoided is that the new EU Drug Strategy will repeat the mistake of the former ones. We should not continue with policies that we know do not work. We should not talk about evaluation if we lack the common instruments to evaluate.

We believe strongly that current policies are not working because they do not respond to the needs that are felt on a local level. While EU drug policies are still aiming at eliminating drug use, what is needed on a local level is basically harm reduction.

Legal, medical and political authorities at a local level have become used to listening to people who are in daily contact with local reality. They are aware of the impact of their decisions on the lives of normal people. As a result they realize much easier what works and what does not.

If at EU level, we stick to the repressive way while on a local level, authorities are convinced of the harm reduction approach, the two policies will be incompatible and in the end there will be no results, again.

As citizens’ associations we wish to support the policy-making process towards a coherent strategy on drugs in the European Union. If possible, we would like very much to meet with you in the coming weeks to inform you of our experiences with current drug policies in Europe and present you our proposals for improving them.

For now, we would just like to limit ourselves to a couple of amendment proposals for the EP recommendation to the Council that have to be presented on 8 November 2004. We would be grateful if you could take them into account.

Amendment to recommendation (b)

Replace by “take account of the fact that the assessments made to date of the six main objectives set by the EU Enti-Drug Strategy (2000-2004), show that none of them achieved favourable results.”

Amendment to recommendation (t) (on international agreements)

Delete this recommendation, as it can give rise to misuse for political reasons.

Recommendations to be added:

“increase research into the use of plants that are currently illegal or in a grey zone, like hemp, opium or coca leaves, for medicinal applications, food security, sustainable agriculture, generation of alternative energy sources, substitution for tree- or oil based products and other benefitial purposes.”

“increase the availability of harm reduction programmes (especially to prevent the spread of HIV and other blood borne diseases) among drug users. ”

“create a specific budget line in order to facilitate an ongoing process of consultation with affected civil society organisations and independent professional experts about the impact of drug policies at the level of citizens.”

Thanks very much for your attention, and hoping to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Joep Oomen

Please copy this letter and send it to your MEP. For the adresses, see the EP website, fill in under Committees: Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and click search. You will get a complete list of names and other contact information, such as telephone and fax.

EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES (ENCOD)

Lange Lozanastraat 14 2018 Antwerpen Belgium

Republish