Persons whose lives are affected by drugs policies suffer the deterioration of their health, the effects of exclusion and stigmatisation, and the violation of their most elementary rights due to a policy that is imposed by international organizations, -International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and by our own country. Participation of affected persons’ organisations in the design and evaluation of drugs policies is anecdotal and, when it happens, it has no influence in the decision making process.

The anti-drugs strategy has turned throughout the years into an open warfare against users. Having signed and implemented the directives of international organizations, governments deny the evidence of harm reduction policies being more just and effective. They prefer to respect political agreements without any scientific base, and some cases signed more than 40 years ago, instead of developing real policies centred on the public health, based on human rights and sensitive with the gender differences.

Amsterdam - Marijuana is one of the most popular Dutch export products, it was reported on Monday. Speaking on the current affairs television programme Reporter, Dutch police commissioner Max Daniel said "Dutch marijuana ranks second or third after the cucumber and the tomato on the list of best-selling Dutch export products."

The sale of so-called soft drugs - marijuana - is legal in the Netherlands, but growing cannabis, which is used to make marijuana, is prohibited in the Netherlands.

In recent months, the Dutch government has been making an effort to close sites where cannabis is being grown. Last year alone, some 5,500 sites -15 per day - were closed by the police.

In the past days, Trekt Uw Plant has again tried to obtain a clear answer on the question if the possession of cannabis for personal use in Belgium is allowed or not. Again, the authorities refuse to give this answer.

According to a ministerial guideline issued by the Belgian minister of Justice and the 5 Head Attorneys in January 2005, the registration by the authorities of the possession of an amount of cannabis for personal use (established at max. 3 grammes and one cannabisplant) by an adult, without the presence of aggravating circumstances or public disorder, will only lead to a Simplified Police Record (VPV). There will be no actions that lead to persecution and the cannabis will not be confiscated.

Antwerpen

A group of actors of the Moroccan civil society have published a document entitled "invitation to open the public debate on the legalisation of cannabis and its useful applications in Morocco".

This initiative came about after the failure of the erradication policies against the cultivation of cannabis in the north of Morocco, carried out under pressure of the UN and the EU. These policies have produced two results:

 the increase in the suffering of the peasants and their families, who after having their fields erradicated are not offered any kind of alternatives, which is in contradiction with national and international policies against poverty.

 many drug traffickers have changed their strategies towards the trade in illicit hard drugs and arms, that are sold to criminal and terrorist groups

Any scientist concerned about the relevance of what they do in the lab to the nitty-gritty of everyday life will have one memory that rivals in vividness John Kennedy’s assassination or the death of Diana. It is the image of John Gummer, then Minister of Agriculture, in May 1990, attempting to force-feed a hamburger to his daughter Cordelia. He was, of course, making a statement about the safety of British beef.

Labour came in with a promise to develop policy on the basis of evidence rather than ministerial whim or political expediency. I was in the audience at the Royal Society on 10 April 2002 when Tony Blair gave his now-famous ’science matters’ speech. The scientific establishment was there in force. The portraits of Newton and Hooke looked down at the throng - more like a children’s Christmas party than a gathering of the white-coated great and good. And we were rewarded with a treat as jolly as any panto. Tony was Aladdin, rubbing his lamp over GM food, nuclear power, embryonic stem cells, nanotechnology and the use of animals in research. His vision was of science at the heart of the future of this country, not just a driver of the economy, but a source of rational decision-making.

But if Tony Blair was Aladdin, Gordon Brown was the Genie. Mr Brown, the paymaster, transformed ideology into action. From the first comprehensive spending review in 1999 to his last Budget in 2007, Gordon Brown has consistently championed science. Now Brown as Prime Minister faces what could be a pivotal test of his personal commitment to evidence-based government - the question of whether the classification of cannabis should be shifted back from C to B.