The annual meeting of the Italian association Forum Droghe

Main results of the meeting were the following: – although the end of Berlusconi government may be considered a great achievement in itself, the new centre-left coalition’s political set-up is far from granting us an easy or reassuring downwards pathway; – though the new minister Paolo Ferrero is working at a governmental bill to decriminalize drug use, the Prodi government’s first moves do not seem to adequately prioritize the urgent need to cancel the prohibitionist law that was imposed by the Berlusconi government upon the Parliament during the last few days of the previous legislature; – Forum droghe cannot accept that the war on drugs ideology sediments and consolidates as a commonsense notion among the police forces, the juridical administration and the public opinion at large; – high on the list of our agenda are the decriminalization of any drug consumption, the legalization of the cannabis consumption, the strengthening of the harm reduction policies, the valuing of the role played by the local administrations and an adequate support of both public and private consumer-focused services.