"Seeds of peace" for MEPs

European Parliament, Brussels, 13 September 2005

The European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies, a platform of 120 associations of citizens who are directly involved in the drug issue, today handed over a bag of cannabis/hemp seeds to all 730 Members of the European Parliament.

The platform requests the MEPs to take action against the current escalation of the war on drugs, which it describes as a major threat to the democratic principles of free societies.

The MEPs are asked to adress themselves to the Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler, in order to ask him not to extradite Marc Emery, a Canadian citizen who is wanted by the United States where he risks imprisonment for life for the sale of cannabis seeds. In Canada, the sale of cannabis seeds has not merited a single prosecution for many years. In some EU countries, it is not even an offence.

Additionally, ENCOD requests the Members of European Parliament to challenge the recently approved EU Action Plan on Drugs for 2005 - 2008. This Plan does not draw any significant conclusion from the official evaluation of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), which clearly indicated that EU drug strategies have had no favourable results whatsoever.

In spite of the recommendations of the European Parliament (formulated in the Catania report of 15 December 2004) and those of numerous experts, civil society organisations and local authorities, the new Action Plan does not contain any significant innovative approaches.

According to ENCOD, drug policy has long been designed in a vacuum, ignoring the signals from the public and the parliament that something is going very wrong.

Therefore, ENCOD invites the MEPs to participate in a common effort to create space for innovative drug policies such as have been put forward by local and regional authorities across Europe. The ENCOD delegation to the European Parliament will meet some MEPs to discuss this effort on Tuesday.

See for the letter presented to MEPs in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish: www.encod.org/epaction.htm

Please contact us for more information.

SIGN THE PETITION FOR A CHANGE IN EU DRUG POLICIES http://action.encod.org