Forty years of ’war on drugs’ have only enrichened the drug barons, while cocagrowers continue to live in poverty.

Not the plant is the problem, but the fact that it is prohibited. Bolivian president Evo Morales is calling for years for an international depenalisation of the coca leaf. Which result has he obtained? Meanwhile, European citizens take initiatives to put in practice alternatives to the legal economy. Fair trade as a contribution to the fight against international drugs trafficking?

During the last session of the Civil Society Forum on 12-13 April 2011 three working groups started to draw up statements for the contribution by the CSF to the new EU Drug Strategy. In the next meeting of the CSF (that will hopefully take place in September of October 2011) these papers will be discussed.

As chairman of the working group on “Alternative Systems of Drug Control” (ASDC), I hereby submit our paper, but I will start with a personal note.

CULTIVA 2011

VIENNA, AUSTRIA