The long march - Adoption of the Catania report on drug policies in the EU | Encod.org

Описание: Encod Campaign 2004.
On 15 December 2004, the European parliament approved a report concerning the EU Strategy on Drugs.

During several months Encod members had realised an intense lobby campaign to inform EP members of the failure of current drug policies and what might be possible alternatives.

The report, coordinated by a young Italian MEP, Giusto Catania, included, among others, the following recommendation:

" increase social and scientific research on illegal substances for relevant medical and social purposes; "

" significantly increase development aid to drug-producing countries, by means of programmes to fund sustainable alternative crops and the radical reduction of poverty, exploring also the possibility of promoting and safeguarding production for medical and scientific purposes, of opiates for example, and to take into consideration the possibility of launching pilot projects for the industrial manufacture of legal products derived from plants covered by the 1961 Convention, such as coca leaf and Indian hemp;"

“define and exponentially step up the involvement and participation of drug addicts and users of illicit substances, civil society, NGOs, the voluntary sector and the general public in resolving drug-related problems, in particular by involving organisations operating in this area more closely in the work of the Horizontal Drugs Group and by setting up, on an experimental basis, easily accessible informal centres pursuing an anti-prohibitionist harm reduction strategy”

This film shows the proceedings on the day the Catania report was approved. For the occasion an Encod delegation had travelled to the EP in Strassbourg to support the approval.