Posts in category: Actions & Events

On 19 October 2011, the European Commission announced a public consultation on drug policy.

For this consultation, a private company was hired (the Rand Corporation). This company organises the consultation through a survey which can only be filled in by people who receive a special code.

We do not know who are the people who receive this code, how they are selected, on which criteria, who they represent, on which evidence their responses are based.

We know some of those who receive this code are those who integrate the socalled Civil Society Forum. Most of them do not represent anyone but a small group of individuals who depend from governmental support. Those organisations are recognised by the European Commission as civil society counterparts not because they represent anyone, but because they support a status quo in drug policies. Thus the voices that call for a profound reform of drug policies, coming from a large majority of those who are affected and concerned with drugs out there where the issues are happening, can safely be considered as “marginal”.

This is not the first failure in the efforts of the European Commission to open up the dialogue with its citizens on drug policies

This is what democracy looks like in the European Union.