EPC Dialogue: “European Drug Policy on the Brink of Change”

Ladies and gentlemen

First of all let me thank you for inviting me to this meeting about perspectives of future European drug policy. As you probably know I represent here the Czech government. My role, however, is double because I’m not only vice-premier of the Czech government but, at the same time, the executive-chairman of the Czech national commission. In other words, at the time-being I’m the member of the government responsible for formulating, implementing & co-coordinating of our national drug policy at both central as well as local level.

In my speech I would like briefly introduce current Czech system of drug policy co-ordination, and then I would like present some recent national figures on drugs use. And finally, I would like to with you some ideas concerning future development of the Czech drug policy as they’re approved by my government yesterday. The reason for the latter is that I strongly believe that the main principles, priorities and strategies we discussed with my colleagues yesterday might fit with main topics of our discussion here today.

National drug commission is an inter-ministerial advisory & coordinating body to the Czech Government in drugs issues. It’s established in 1993. It’s headed by prime-minister; the members are my six colleagues - ministers of health, social affairs, education, justice, interior, and defence. The main task of the national drug commission is to formulate, implement and co-ordinate national drug policy at both central and local levels. Commission meets at least four times a year and its tasks are in the meantime fulfilled by its secretariat which prepares proposals and delivers activities agreed by the commission and or by the government. At the local level co-operation & co-ordination of activities and interventions are assured through a network of fourteen drug co-coordinators.

Since 1993 the Czech drug policy has been developed on the basis of experts’ opinions and estimates rather than on complex data. The reason for its insufficient system of monitoring, data collection and analysis. This lack of valid, reliable and complex data gave room to a lot of moral panics in the field of drugs, particularly in media and among certain part of politicians. Alarming information about dramatic increase of illicit drug use – which as I already mentioned – were based more on “Guesstimates” than on valid data lead in 1998to the considerable change of the Czech drug legislation. So, since January 1999 new law came into force introducing – after many years – penalisation of possession of all types of illegal drugs without taking into account their various potential health & social risks for individuals & society. Main arguments of proponents of such strengthening of repressive measures were that this will result in decrease in availability of drugs, in decrease of demand for them as well as decrease of drugs consumption.

The research which followed this legislative change showed, however, that not one of the desired aims of this repressive measure had been achieved. In contrary, legislation strengthening lead to the commercialization of cannabis purchase – which wasn’t subject to black market distribution prior this change – and to an interconnection of both cannabis &more risky drugs black markets.

Finally, the research suggested that young people started to differentiate between drugs with different potential health & social risks already before the legislative change, very likely due to valid and objective information about drugs disseminated within preventive activities. Also their own experiences and knowledge contributed very probably to the change of attitudes and behaviour towards drugs so, that the trends of consumption of more risky drugs stabilised or slightly decreased, while life – time prevalence and patterns of recreational use of cannabis and ecstasy increase.

Based on the conclusions of research that aimed at evaluating the above described legislative change the government decided to officially differentiate between drugs with various potential health & social risks. Drawing on this governmental decision from 2001 we proposed to relax punitive approach towards the possession of cannabis for personal use. This proposal is a small part of the entire complex innovation of the Czech penal code. The reason is that we strongly believe that the drug policy should be realistic and its overall aim should be prevention and/or minimisation of potential health and social risks for individuals and society.

That is why I proposed to the Czech government the public health approach – as defined by the world health organisation – as the main principle of the future Czech drug policy. In our discussion about the preparation of the national drug policy strategy for the period 2005-2009 we further concluded what the main priorities should be. On the one hand it should be the reduction of potential risks and adverse consequence of drug use, while on the other it should be the prosecution of organised crime involved in drug trafficking. As you may see there is no desire to punish drugs users.

The future Czech drug policy should be based on the combination of three main strategies – these are drug supply, drug demand & risk reduction. These strategies aren’t only complementary to each other but they also follow – however through completely different philosophies, interventions and primary aims – common ultimate aim which is the minimisation of potential risks and adverse consequences of drugs [legal as well as illegal] use. Concerning the aims of the future Czech drug policy we agreed that they have to be realistic – it’s attainable as well as measurable. As a baseline we’ll use the complex data provided by the last year established national focal point as presented in the annual report on the state of drug issues in 2003. These data on the extent, patterns and consequences of drug use will be complemented by the so called swot analysis. This the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of cutting drug policy in nine areas – prevention, treatment, risk reduction law enforcement, alcohol & tobacco, coordination, funding, international co-operation, public relations. In the direct preparation of than eighty experts from relevant ministries, local governments and experts from statutory as well as from non-statutory organisations, and representatives of self-help groups will participate. The first draft will be discussed by the national drug commission, and before its finalisation and submission to the government it’ll be for couple of months open to public debate.