Czech
Experiment
With
Repressive
Drug
Laws
Under
Fire,
Reformers
Aim
Parliamentary
Challenge
at
"Severa's
Amendment"
6/1/01
A little more than a decade ago, the "Velvet Revolution" peacefully deposed the Communist regime in then Czechoslovakia. The end of the police state, however, brought with it not only parliamentary democracy, free trade and the free movement of people, but also rising levels of drug use and abuse and evidence of growing Czech involvement in the busy trans-Balkan drug traffic. Czech teenagers have one of the continent's highest rates of cannabis use -- 35% of 15- and 16-year-olds have tried marijuana, with the rate increasing rapidly during the 1990s, according to the European Monitoring Center on Drugs and Drug Addiction's (EMCDDA) latest annual survey. By this year, 47% of Czech teens had tried some illicit drug, the vast majority of them smoking pot, according to the Czech Interior Ministry. Cannabis is, according to all reports, the most popular of illicit drugs. Heroin, which was virtually unknown in the country in the Communist days, made an appearance in the 1990s, but the most frequently abused hard drug is Pervitin, a Czech methamphetamine. Pervitin accounts for 68% of all "problem drug users" in the now Czech Republic, according to EMCDDA. Ecstasy is also increasingly popular, both with young Czechs and with the youthful internationalists who crowd Prague cafes and nightclubs. Cocaine, too, has made inroads, although both EMCDDA and the US State Department suggest that because of its cost, cocaine is used primarily by Western visitors. At a time when most of Europe was moving in the direction of harm reduction and flirting with decriminalization, the Czech parliament marched resolutely backward. Under the former Communist regime's criminal codes, simple possession of drugs, or "addictive substances" in the original Czech, was not a crime. By 1999, however, socially conservative elements within the main political parties turned to repressive measures to halt rising drug use. Christian Democrat Member of Parliament Pavel Severa, a prominent anti-drug crusader, introduced legislation that would make people who possess more than a "bigger than small" amount of any drug -- including marijuana -- eligible for prison sentences of up to two years, and up to five years for more serious possession offenses. Severa's Amendment also included language making "dissemination of drug addiction" a crime. Supporting, encouraging, or tempting someone to use illicit drugs would be punishable by up to three years in prison. The bill passed over Havel's token opposition and became law in 1999. The primary practical result of Severa's Amendment appears to have been a crackdown on small-scale marijuana growers and users. (For cannabis, Czech police have decided that anything more than 10 joints is an amount "bigger than small," while any number of cultivated plants also qualifies for the two-year prison term.) Czech drug expert and writer Bushka Bryndova told DRCNet of a 23-year-old jailed since September 1999 "for growing a few plants of cannabis indica and their consummation with his adult friends. I have posted an online petition (http://www.koukat.cz) asking President Havel to grant executive clemency to the young man. "The petition collected over 6,000 signatures, but Havel has refused to release him," wrote Bryndova. "He has been granting some clemencies to young people sentenced to prison for pot over the last two years, but now it seems he cares more for his own popularity than for justice." Bryndova is working with Civic Democrat (ODS) Deputy Frantisek Pejril to draft legislation overturning Severa's Amendment. "We propose to make a distinction between substances with an acceptable risk for health and substances with a unacceptable risk," Pejril told DRCNet. "For the drugs with an acceptable risk for health, such as marijuana, we will propose that there wouldn't be any sanctions for growing, production and possession for personal use. Criminal activities connected to hard drugs would be better detectable this way," he added. "There would also be more severe punishment of hard drug dealers, smugglers, and producers as part of this legislation," Bryndova told DRCNet. "Under the current law, there were cases where people with pounds of heroin got the same prison sentences as people with a few hemp plants!" Pejril may be riding the crest of a wave. "Since the May 5 Space Odyssey rallies in Prague and Brno, a remarkable shift in media and public opinion has occurred," noted Bryndova. "Major Czech press had front-page headlines about Pejril's declaration about the bill, and most of the reaction is unexpectedly favorable to Pejril's initiative." Those rallies, part of a global array of demonstrations occurring in more than 130 cities, drew hundreds of people to hear music and speakers, including Deputy Pejril at Brno. "Smoking pot has become an integral part of our young generation's life-style, and this absurd legislation is putting a great majority of our young folks into the situation where they are breaking the law. The law has had absolutely no dissuasive effect on pot smokers," wrote Bryndova. "Everybody is smoking it more and more -- you can currently smell it in bars, pubs, clubs, all across the country." Other politicians are beginning to get into the act, too. The Prague Post, in an article that described open smoking on weekend afternoons at sunny Prague beer gardens, quoted ODS deputy chairman Ivan Langer as agreeing that Severa's amendment had failed and that marijuana should be decriminalized. "I know it sounds a bit strange," he said. No one wants to legalize drugs; we just want to change the system." Two other ODS deputies, Eva Dundackova and Lucie Talmanova, have come on board as well. They recently announced that they would also introduce an amendment that would decriminalize possession of marijuana, while increasing penalties for dealing. According to Bryndova, Duncackova, who is the ODS shadow minister for Justice, also debated Severa on a popular Czech talk show, where she "tore to pieces" the Czech disciple of the DEA. Prague city councilman Christian Thuri also supports marijuana decriminalization, he told DRCNet. "The older generation must understand that cannabis is not as dangerous as alcohol, and what is forbidden to youth is more interesting to them," wrote Thuri. "Severa's amendment is counterproductive. But what's worse, young people cannot now grow their own, and they have to go to dealers where they could be exposed to other drugs. The danger is also that we teach children to laugh at the law. They know the law is bad. What can they think of the people who make these bad laws?" Action on the bills will not come until September, after a study of current drug laws is completed. The study, carried out by the Interministerial Anti-Drug Commission and headed by prominent Czech drug expert Dr. Radimecky, is expected to be highly critical of Severa'a amendment. "I think the chances for the new law passing are high," activist Petr Dousa told DRCNet. "The government study is expected to show negative effects, we will have sufficient time for public debate, and the media should cover the case without prohibitionist propaganda because -- no surprise -- the journalists smoke ganja." Bryndova isn't so sure. "I think it would be premature to make any predictions," the activist told DRCNet. "There is a dynamic shift in favor of depenalization right now, but I expect a counterstroke from the Christian Democrats, who will not be willing to leave the battlefield without a fight. Still, our young people are very hopeful that finally they will be able to live without fear and be exposed no more to the mercies of policemen and judges for doing something that most of their peers do -- grow and use pot." The marijuana reform proposals could well fall victim to cross-currents of the Czech Republic's complicated partisan politics. Havel's Social Democrats square off against the Civic Democrats, who in turn look over their shoulders at the Coalition of Four parties, two of which, the Union of Liberty and the Christian Democrats, are represented in parliament. The Union of Liberty has libertarian elements, as does the ODS, but both also contain traditional conservatives. The Christian Democrats -- Severa's party -- are social conservatives; the Social Democrats are "kindler, gentler" free marketeers. But the divides on drug policy seem driven less by party lines than generational ones. "You cannot describe the Social Democrats or the ODS to be pro-reform or pro-drug war," Czech journalist Michael Polak told DRCNet. "The older generation is simply uninterested or supports prohibition, while the younger generation of politicians, with few exceptions, supports a more tolerant and pro-reform approach." For Polak, "the worst problem is the Coalition of Four. There are Christian Democrat conservatives as well as relatively open-minded people from the Union of Liberty who voted 'no' on the current drug law," he told DRCNet. "It's likely the coalition will be the strongest reason marijuana won't be decriminalized in our country, because the Union of Liberty is fighting for leadership of the coalition and they don't want to make the Christian Democrats unhappy. This is a minor topic for the Union, but a major one for prohibitionists among the Christian Democrats." Prague city councilman Thuri wishes some of the energy devoted to changing the marijuana law could be extended to bringing increased harm reduction measures for hard drug users. Thuri and other members of the Prague city council have managed to get needle exchange programs up and running for what Thuri estimates are the republic's 5,000 heroin addicts, but have so far been stifled in efforts to open a safe injection room. "Much of the marijuana legalization movement is separated from the safe injection room issue," Thuri told DRCNet. "The people who smoke marijuana aren't interested in other drugs and they don't like politics." But Thuri brings a broader libertarian perspective to the issue. "I'm a member of the ODS and I prefer freedom for everybody as a first principle. Personally, I'm in favor of the absolute legalization of drugs because that's the only way to liquidate the mafia. "For that, we will have to wait a very long time, but the time will come," Thuri predicted. "Our biggest problem is that our politicians are looking to the stupid policies of the USA for answers. Europe is a complex of small nations, and we need a big brother. Too bad big brother is so stupid."
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