Demonstration in Vienna

On April 12th, approximately 2.500 persons took part in the first global anti-prohibitionist demonstration SPREAD THE SEED in Vienna.

It was a theatre demonstration with hundreds of artists from Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Croatia, Poland, Finland, Sweden plus of course Austria.

Among them a mobile coffeeshop from the Netherlands, walking joints, OPEN YOUR MIND-poetry, and messages claiming HANDS OFF OUR DOPE, NATO OUT OF AFGHANISTAN. All this under a colourful wave of PEACE banners with a cannabis leaf printed upon it, and a professional artist exposition illustrating the tragedy and shame of the war on drugs.

On the bridge leading to the UN Centre in Vienna, 2.000 balloons were launched containing the seeds of cannabis and opium.

A great part of the Vienna City Centre was facilitated by the local government of Vienna. Along the routes thousands of policemen were present. They were watching the demo and some showed signs of support.

At the UN Centre, tensions rose a little when the demonstrators were not allowed to walk up to the entrance of the building. Riot policemen appeared, dogs etc. Some speeches were held insisting on the UN authorities to stop defending the interest of the criminal drugs empire, and start to defend the interests of citizens around the world, their culture and natural resources.

The demonstration then ended with a open air dance party on the pavement in front of the UN building.

Many people have filmed the event, and some of them are preparing a short documentary.

ICN comment on Vienna 
THE MID-TERM REVIEW IN VIENNA HAS BEEN A MISSED OPPORTUNITY, BUT BEHIND THE SCENES ALTERNATIVE DRUG POLICIES MOVING FORWARD (Click here)

From the 8th to the 18th of April 2003, government representatives from all over the world will meet in Vienna to review progress at the half way point of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs 10 year strategy, formulated in New York in 1998. Under the title ‘A drug free world we can do it’, this strategy promised to eliminate or significantly reduce the supply and demand for illegal drugs, before the year 2008

According to the UN Global Illicit Drug Trends report on 2002, this objective has not been accomplished. On the contrary, cannabis, cocaine and synthetic drug production, as well as the overall number of illicit drug consumers continues to increase. Heroin production has decreased due to the ban on opium production declared by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. However, surveys show that from February 2002 onwards, opium cultivation has resumed in Afghanistan and it is expected that heroin production will soon be comparable to mid-1990 levels.

In the past 5 years, an international network of organisations has been formed, representing citizens and independent experts who together want to confront policy-makers with the ineffectiveness of drug prohibition, and the evidence that better alternatives do exist.

This network is called the International Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies, ICN. In the coming months, European members of the ICN will try to convince policy-makers in their countries to use the opportunity of the April 2003 meeting to review the legal basis of drug prohibition, formed by the UN Conventions on Drugs of 1961, 1971 and 1988.

This campaigns aims at achieving parliamentary resolutions or other forms of political pressure on European governments/European Commission to raise the need of reform at the UN CND meeting in April 2003.

One of the highlights of this campaign will be a major Conference organised by the ICN in the European Parliament in Brussels, on 4 March 2003. This Conference will present the evidence for reform to parliamentarians, officials and other authorities. The arguments will be made that drug prohibition is causing more harm than the consumption of prohibited drugs themselves, and that UN Conventions need to be reviewed in order to allow countries to implement policies that manage the realities of drugs rather than simply eliminating them.

Responsible for this campaign will be a team of European drug policy activists and professionals, formed during the meetings of ICN. Funding is being provided by the Network of European Foundations and organised by the participant NGO’s. All contributions to this project are welcome, financial and otherwise. For more information, click here.

News on the progress of this campaign in the various countries can be found on this website.