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Statewatch News online: Italy: Demonstration in Rome against new drug law
28 March 2012
Italy:
Demonstration in Rome against new drug law
On Saturday 21 February 2004, over 10,000 persons demonstrated
in Rome to oppose the drug law reform, proposed by deputy prime
minister, Gianfranco Fini, that the government is seeking to
introduce and is due to come under parliamentary scrutiny. The
"Street Parade" saw the participation of political
parties, social organisations, students, teachers and social
centres, as well as social workers who work in public drug therapy
centres. The draft of the new law was agreed by Parliament on
13 November 2003, and seeks to eliminate the distinction between
"hard" and "soft" drugs, criminalise consumption,
making it punishable with prison sentences and increasing the
role of private drug therapy clinics in rehabilitation. The low
thresholds that it introduces for possession to be considered
a crime threaten to criminalise all drug users at a stroke. The
proposed law also extends the use of administrative sanctions
for "non serious" offences, such as the confiscation
of passports for up to a year, and of motor vehicles. The demonstration's
slogan was "Right or wrong, it shouldn't be a crime".
see: Italy: New
drugs law heralds the mass criminalisation of drug users:
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