Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-08-Speech-2-139"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2003-04-08"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Reform of the conventions on drugs2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20030408.3.2-139"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2003-04-08-Speech-2-1402
lpv:speaker	lp:Chris Davies2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, I should like first to congratulate the United States of America, the puppet masters at this convention. Eighteen months after they bombed hell out of Afghanistan, the heroin crop in that country is now greater than ever. What a brilliant strategy the Americans must have! It is hard to find anyone who believes that the existing drugs policies are a success. It would be a ridiculous claim to make, were they to do so. So it should simply be common sense to evaluate current policies, assess their effectiveness and consider alternative options. And common sense it might be to the majority of people; but not, I fear, to the delegates to this convention. They might as well all be in the pay of the drug barons, because the effect of their determination to pursue the policies of prohibition will simply be to line the pockets of those same criminals, discarding more intelligent approaches which could reduce the real harm to individuals and to the rest of society. The truth is that prohibition is not the solution to the problems, it is the principal cause of them. It is prohibition which creates the profits of the drug barons. It is prohibition which kills users by denying them the information they need about the drugs they put into their bodies. It is prohibition which feeds the cancer of corruption which does so much harm to our society. My view – and my hope – is that prohibition will one day be replaced by government regulation; but I do not say that this is a policy which should be imposed on every nation. I say to my Swedish colleagues and to the United States that they should be free to develop the drugs policies they think appropriate for their own nations, but that others should be free to develop their own strategies to explore more effective solutions to deal with this terribly difficult problem."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	member; Delegation to the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee (2002-02-07--2004-04-30)3 unknown; Liberal Democrat Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 substitute; PETI (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; ELDR (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Davies (ELDR )."1

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