In article 29 entitled “cannabis cultivation, public use of narcotic substances, forgery of a medical prescription” of the bill it is stated:
1. Whoever cultivates cannabis plants for his own exclusive use in a number or area that is justified only for his individual use , is punished with a detention of up to three months or a fine of up to five hundred euros.
2. Anyone who uses drugs in public is punished with detention of up to six months or a fine of up to one thousand euros. The perpetrator of the act of the previous paragraph may be deemed unpunished if the court, assessing the circumstances of the act and the personality of the perpetrator, determines that the criminal act was completely coincidental and is not likely to be repeated.
3. Whoever, for his own exclusive use, procures or possesses drugs in any way, in quantities justified only for his individual use, does not commit an unjust act .
The pretext of “personal use” crumbles away from reality itself. Because not only is each user’s need for substances different, but in the course of addiction, the user’s own needs also change. That is, a user who starts with 30 mg of heroin, after a while may need a gram, two or three. The same goes for any drug. It is impossible to put personal substance use on the scale. Who and with what criteria will choose what is the need for personal use, for one or the other addict? The same answer applies to the cultivation of Indian hemp, while the “astronomical” fine of … 500 euros is intended to act as an ash in the eyes for the decriminalization of the cultivation. Essentially, the way is opened for small and large drug dealers to operate freely.
| By handing addiction over to private individuals, thousands of young people are condemned to addiction until their last breath |
One of the arguments used in the bill is that “
the penalty limits proposed by the EU are lower than those of the Greek legislation “. However, the official figures are ignored, which show that where access to drugs is easy, the rates of use are 5 times higher than in Greece (Denmark, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Slovenia). Conversely, where there is difficulty (Greece, Cyprus, Finland) the percentages are low.
It is a myth that decriminalization will “curb the drug problem” or crack down on organized crime. The drug trade is one of the most profitable criminal activities on the planet along with arms and human trafficking. The trade in arms is legal, and yet the great turnover is made by the illegal trade. Alongside legal prostitution, illegal prostitution exists, grows and is profitable.
In article 23, which mentions the cases of trafficking that are punishable by the maximum sentence (life) or by temporary imprisonment (10 – 20 years), it is pointed out, among other things, that the large quantity of trafficked drugs is determined by the amount of the financial benefit (50,000 euros and above).
To understand what a 50,000 euro financial benefit from drug trafficking means, it is worth mentioning that 4 kg of cannabis or 2 kg of heroin coffee (i.e. a huge amount) costs around 40,000 euro (retail prices mentioned in the Report of the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction – EMCDDA).
” The criminal treatment of the problem in our country has as inevitable consequences the overloading of prisons “, the bill also states. It is known that to date, no one has been sent to prison for using substances. Instead, their “justice” is one that imprisons addicts for stealing a car rim while it was in use, while always letting dealers go free. A “justice” fully in harmony with the world’s civil law laws, which protect and facilitate the trafficking of 95% of the world’s opium production from Afghanistan, a production which just 7 years after the invasion of the imperialist forces increased by 4,511%! They privatize prevention – rehabilitation – reintegration
In article 53 of the bill it is stated: The programming to deal with substance dependence (…) is divided into three levels a) prevention – information, b) therapeutic rehabilitation, c) social reintegration. The Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity (.. .) With the same procedure and under the same conditions, they can establish corresponding units provided for in the first paragraph of the previous paragraph, and a) municipalities and communities, b) charitable associations and public benefit institutions, as long as this is provided for by their statutory provisions, c ) ecclesiastical bodies, d) Higher Educational or Technological Institutions, e) natural or legal persons pursuing related purposes.
Also, in article 55 it is stated that prevention programs may be drawn up by the Church, OTAs, trade union bodies, as well as any state or private non-profit body.
“The bill guarantees the right to treatment (…) It facilitates the effective implementation of addiction measures”, they claim. In fact, all that is guaranteed is the “right” to consider the user a “patient” with access to lifelong substitution services. The acquis of even this existing public and free prevention, de-addiction and social reintegration is being undermined.
The state transfers to private individuals its sole responsibility for each of the links in the chain related to drug addiction under the pretense of supervising them. How are prevention, drug addiction, social reintegration ensured when: Prevention Centers are closed? Are “dry” programs suffocating from underfunding and understaffing? Is finding work and racism a noose around the necks of people fighting the battle of addiction?
In fact, anyone who wants to open their own “business – prevention, rehab, reintegration” is now officially allowed to take advantage of human suffering. The possibility of legalization and expansion is given to a multitude of illegal “rehab centers” throughout Greece, the vast majority of which apply dangerous or inappropriate methods and hoard at the expense of addicts and their families. Another sign of “justice” is that many of these “centers” have been confronted with her and of course acquitted. Immediate, realistic solutions
In no way can the legalization of drugs and civil laws address the social problem of drug addiction, as they do not even touch the social causes that give birth to it and the ideological mechanisms that reproduce it. Although drug addiction is a product of capitalism and can only be fully dealt with by its overthrow, there are immediate practical solutions that can curb it. With full funding and sufficient scientific, permanent staff, creation of a pan-Hellenic public body with exclusively free provision of services to :
Prevention, the main weapon in the fight against drugs. Prevention is specific Social Welfare measures that have to do with all the main factors that affect a person’s life (work, school, etc.). Implementation of primary prevention programs at all educational levels, staffing of school levels with trained social workers, psychologists, creation of schools that will train parents in ways to deal with the problem.
De-addiction, that is, to have as many “dry” programs as the country needs, at least one for teenagers and one for adults in each prefecture. Development of early intervention programs for youth who experiment with drugs but are not yet addicted to them. Promotion of scientific research related to the social causes of the drug problem.
Reintegration , establish special training programs to help ex-users find work, cooperation of scientific, trade union and other bodies to fight racism.
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Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on June 18, 2024
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