Drug policy was not among the burning campaign issues at the 2009 EP elections in most countries of the EU – most political parties were silent about drugs. Citizens often have no or few information about the drug policy preferences of parties they intend to vote for.
What European Politicians Think About Drug Policy
Drug policy was not among the burning campaign issues at the 2009 EP elections in most countries of the EU – most political parties were silent about drugs. Citizens often have no or few information about the drug policy preferences of parties they intend to vote for.
One of the EDPI initiatives is to raise awareness on the need for drug policy reform among policy makers and citizens, and therefore we have decided to build a database where people can learn more about the positions of parties on various drug policy issues which often divide the public.
We have prepared a questionnaire in which we asked 8 important questions from parties in our 7 target countries:
1) Would your party punish people who possess small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use, without any intention to sell?
2) Does your party oppose or support taxing and regulating cannabis and selling it in special shops only for adults?
3) Would your party punish people who smoke cannabis as a medicine prescribed by their doctors to treat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, AIDS, cancer or glaucoma?
4) What is your party’s position on opiate substitution treatment for heroin users? Would you allow opening new programs and increase access to these services?
NOTE: Opiate substitution treatment is the medical procedure of replacing an illegal opiate drug such as heroin with legal opiate, usually methadone or buprenorphine, which is then taken under medical supervision. There is evidence that OST is effective in reducing crime, infections and unemployment among injecting drug users.
5) Does your party support a needle and syringe exchange programs to prevent the spread of blood born infections?
NOTE: Needle and syringe exchange programs aim to reduce the vulnerability of injecting drug users to infections (such as HIV and hepatitis) by providing them sterile injecting equipment and collecting used needles and syringes. In addition, these programs also provide other services such as HIV and Hepatitis testing and counseling, condom distribution and education on the risks of injections.
6) Does your party support supervised injection rooms and/or heroin maintenance for chronic heroin dependent persons?
NOTE: Supervised injection sites are legally sanctioned and supervised facilities designed to reduce the health and public order problems associated with illegal drug use, such as infections, nuisance and lethal overdoses. Today there are several legal drug consumption rooms in the European Union, for example in Germany, in The Netherlands, in Denmark and in Norway. These centres are usually located in urban areas, with the primary aims to reduce negative health effects and minimize the public disturbance arising from street-based drug use. Heroin maintenance programs target users who had failed multiple withdrawal programs and provide them with legal heroin in medically supervised clinics. The aim of this intervention is to maintain the health of the user in order to avoid medical problems stemming from the use of illicit street heroin. Reducing drug-related crime and preventing overdoses were two other goals. Heroin maintenance exists in Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Canada and Australia.
7) What does your party consider the most important elements of a successful drug policy?
8) Would your party welcome a fundamental debate on the arguments pro and contra prohibition versus legalization of drugs?
The findings of the first 6 decisive questions (support/not support) of the questionnaire were processed into tables. The country-specific tables and the original questionnaires filled out can be downloaded here:
Bulgaria (in progress)
Czech Republic
A table summarizing the findings of the survey on specific policy interventions:
Detailed answers from parties:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Denmark (in progress)
Hungary
A table summarizing the findings of the survey on specific policy interventions:
Hungarian Summary Table (.pdf)
Answers from the parties:
The Netherlands
A table summarizing the findings of the survey on specific policy interventions:
Answers from parties:
Poland
A table summarizing the findings of the survey on specific policy interventions:
Answers from parties:
Sweden
The questionnaires were sent to most parties in our target countries and many of them have already responded. However, some of the parties were reluctant to express their opinions (probably they do not consider drug policy an important issue, or they are afraid of loosing votes if they speak up).
You could help us update this database by sending the questionnaire to parties in your own country!
