During the year 2006, ENCOD and its members expressed the call for the need to replace drug prohibition by a legal regulation. Here is an overview of these efforts.
THE ENCOD BULLETINS IN 2006
January: EVERYONE IS A CITIZEN
February: MIRACLES MAY HAPPEN
March: PANDORA’S DILEMMA
April: THE STRONGEST LINK
May: DRUGS AND DEMOCRACY
June: CROSS-BORDER EXPERIENCES
July: STRATEGY FOR A DRUG-WAR FREE EUROPE
August: A COMMON EFFORT
September: CANNABIS SOCIAL CLUBS
October: THE ROAD TO VIENNA 2008
November: A MATTER OF TRANSPARENCY
December: ONE STEP FURTHER
12 January: The Pannagh Case
In October 2005, Spanish police confiscated the collective plantation of Pannagh, an association of cannabis consumers and producers in Bilbao, Basque country. ENCOD started a campaign in support of the association. As a result, MEP Giusto Catania (GUE/NGL) sent some written questions to the EU Commissioner for Justice Franco Frattini. Later in the year, the judge in Bilbao dismissed the accusations against Pannagh, converting this case into a judicial precedent: the first ‘Cannabis Social Club’ operating legally in Europe.
6 February: Swedish ENCOD member forced to give up its membership
A Swedish MP put pressure on local authorities in Stockholm in order to stop funding the Swedish drug users union if they would remain members of ENCOD. ENCOD wrote a public letter to the Swedish EU Commissioner to protest against this censorship.
17 February: Participation in workshop on controlled distribution of cocaine in the Netherlands, organised by the Dutch Drug Policy Foundation, Utrecht
19 February: Public letter against the criminalisation of hemp fairs
During the Highlife Hemp Fair in Amsterdam, Dutch authorities were harrassing standholders and participants. ENCOD produced a public statement to question this practice.
13 – 18 March: Participation in the UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS Viena.
Read the statement of the ENCOD delegation to the UN CND meeting.
17 – 19 March: Participation in the Expert meeting of the Correlation Network on Social Exclusion & health, Krakow
23 – 25 March: Participation in the Annual Congress of Akzept, Berlin
27 March: Comments to the EU website.
Read the ENCOD Comments to the website that was opened by the European commission to receive comments of citizens on the progress of the European Union (in the framework of the campaign for a new EU Constitution).
22 May: Solidarity Action with Bernard Rappaz.
ENCOD made an appeal to cannabis activists in Europe to organise a solidarity hungerstrike with Bernard Rappaz, persecuted by Swiss justice.
10 June: Speech at the annual Legalize! Demonstration, Amsterdam
15 June: Participation in the 30th Anniversary of the Appel de 18 Joint, organised by French cannabis activists in the National Parliament, Paris.
23-25 June: Annual General Assembly, Antwerp. Read the Minutes.
26 July: Negotiation in conflict between Spanish Hemp fairs
In July, the two companies involved in the organisation of hemp fairs in Spain announced that they would organise both their fairs on the same date. ENCOD carried out a succesfull effort to negotiate between the two companies: the dates were modified.
27 July: First step towards normalisation of cannabis in Belgium
ENCOD members participated in a succesfull media event to start Trekt Uw Plant, the first Cannabis Social Club in Antwerp, Belgium.
25 August: Participation in workshop on drug policy at the Summer University of the Green Party, Coutances, France
26 – 28 October: Participation in the second Expert meeting of the Correlation Network on Social Exclusion & health Dublin
14 November: Participation in the First Coca Leaf Fair in Europe, organised by GASS in the University of Barcelona, Spain
16 November: Participation in the Conference ‘Let’s talk about Cannabis’, organised in the University of DEUSTO, Bilbao, Spain
Read the ENCOD Speech at the Conference.
12 December: Trekt Uw Plant makes second step towards normalisation of cannabis in Belgium
A second media event took place to announce the start of a Cannabis Social Club in Antwerp, Belgium. The event provoked a court case that will take place in the first months of 2007.
15 December: Participation in the Annual Drug Users’ Day, organised by ASAUPAM, Barcelona, Spain
We are planning further actions on European drug policy reform – please follow this site for more details.
Do you want to participate or get more information on ENCOD or our campaigns? Please contact the ENCOD secretariat.