Europe:
Italy
Poised
for
Giant
Step
Backward
on
Drug
Policy
2/3/06
For more than a decade, the possession of personal use quantities of drugs has been decriminalized in Italy, but with a tough new drug law being pushed through parliament, that could be about to change. The "zero tolerance" drug bill, which has languished for nearly three years, was fast-tracked when supporters tied it to an emergency bill dealing with the Winter Olympics in Turin. It passed the Senate last week and is scheduled for a vote in the Chamber of Deputies next week. Given that the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has a strong parliamentary majority, the bill is almost certain to pass. Pushed by Vice-Premier Giancarlo Fini, the leader of the neo-fascist National Alliance, the bill calls for prison terms of six to 20 years for drug offenses, including drug consumption, according to an analysis published by the Italian drug reform web site Fuoriluogo, which includes English language material. The bill would also remove the distinction between "soft" and "hard" drugs, making marijuana as punishable as heroin. Under the bill, people found in possession of very small quantities of an illegal drug would face not jail time but administrative sanctions or treatment orders, but the thresholds for personal use amounts have not yet been set. Early indications are that the government will try to set thresholds so low (a fifth of a gram of heroin, half a gram of cocaine) that many drug consumers will find themselves facing harsh prison sentences. Similarly, marijuana users could find themselves labeled "drug addicts" and forced into treatment over small quantities of the weed. The bill would also allow private drug treatment clinics to certify users as "addicts," an ability previously limited to the government. The bill overcame parliamentary opposition in the Senate, leading Daniele Capezzone, secretary of the Italian Radical Party to warn last week it would result in a huge prison boom. "Now with the government's wretched acceleration on the drugs issue it is concrete," she said. "There is now the risk of prison for hundreds and thousands of youths. I am launching an appeal to the parents who might not like that their child smokes a joint, but it is incredible that for something as ridiculous as five or six joints one risks being searched at sunrise, arrest, trial and then one to six years of prison. At this point I ask whether the only great government work will be the construction of new prisons," she said. The Radicals were not alone in denouncing the bill and the way it was railroaded through the Senate. "This is frankly scandalous behavior," said PRC secretary Fausto Bertinotti, who added that the law would be repealed in the event the Berlusconi government is thrown out in April elections. "The government is winking at the most reactionary part of the electorate, telling it that it gives them the arms to fire and reprimand those with transgressive behavior." The drug issue, Bertinotti continued, "is an enormous societal problem and the repressive line will resolve nothing. A problem like this must be discussed in Parliament with the right conditions and the necessary time, and confronted with the vast non-prohibitionist experience that this country has." While the drug bill has excited strong opposition from drug users, drug reform groups, and treatment professionals, among others, it appears unstoppable. The last chance to block the bill would be to persuade President Ciampi to refuse to sign it. While under a parliamentary system, the presidency is a largely ceremonial post, the president does have the power to refuse to sign laws he thinks may be unconstitutional.
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