A referendum to legalise cannabis has attracted in immediate boom in signatures. 50,000 signatures are needed by the end of September. Marco Perduca, from Associazione Coscioni, is championing the initiative.
“There would be no more searches and complaints for those who make personal use,” Coscioni said to the media.
This week the Justice Committee of the Chamber of Deputies has approved a basic text of a new law on cannabis, so signatures are now being sought for a referendum that decriminalises planting.
A referendum question has now been filed with the Court of Cassation which proposes to intervene both on the level of criminal relevance and on that of administrative sanctions regarding cannabis.
A group of experts, jurists and militants, who have always been committed against prohibition have united in a number of lobbying associations such as Luca Coscioni, Meglio Legale, Forum Droghe, Antigone, Società della Ragione. Representatives of the political parties +Europa, Possibile and Italian Radicals also took part in the proposal.
Over 50,000 signatures have been collected in first 5 hours since the petition was opened.
“We look with even more optimism to September 30 to be able to go to the vote next spring”, said Marco Perduca of the Luca Coscioni Association, President of the promoting committee.
“The referendum cancels the penal sanctions, hence the prison for the cultivation and domestic use of cannabis. We believe that something that has no other repercussion than us for the organism of the person who takes it should not be penalised criminally. At the same time it cancels the worst of administrative sanctions, that is license suspension.”
Referendums are abrogative so they cannot manipulate the text and cannot go against international treaties.
The referendum aims to decriminalize the conduct of cannabis cultivation and to eliminate the prison sentence for any illicit conduct, with the exception of association aimed at illicit trafficking, while maintaining the conduct of possession, production and manufacture that can be applied for non-personal use of all substances.
Furthermore, on the administrative level, the referendum eliminates the sanction of suspension of the driving license and of the certificate of fitness to drive mopeds currently intended for all conducts aimed at the personal use of any narcotic or psychotropic substance.
“Surely there would be no more searches, complaints, reprimands from the Prefect, there would no longer be the denial of a non-violent activity that is cultivation and there would be no problems for the personal use of substances, which instead create problems for the administration of the justice of the courts and they give almost 30% of prisoners to the already overcrowded Italian prisons ”.
According to the proponents, the first step is “an excellent start for the Referendum for the legalisation of cannabis which is a precious opportunity to change a law that has caused damage for thirty years and continues to produce it every day.”
“The promoters of this referendum demand that the referendum on Cannabis have the same rules as those of the other referendums whose signature collections are still in progress and that is that the deadline for the deposit of signatures is October 31 of this year, on the other hand, on the basis of an irrational and discriminatory rule, only this referendum should deposit the citizens’ subscriptions by 30 September next.
On this the government accepted two days ago an agenda signed by me with which it undertakes to evaluate a regulatory intervention that is very necessary ”, concluded Riccardo Magi, Italian MP representing +Europa.
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