Latest available data show that whereas the use of heroin, cannabis and synthetic drugs has stabilised or is declining, cocaine use is rising in a number of Member States. The total number of people in the EU who use drugs – or have at some time taken them – is estimated at 70 million for cannabis, at least 12 million for cocaine, 9.5 million for ecstasy and 11 million for amphetamines, while at least half a million people are known to be receiving substitution treatment for heroin. There are up to 2 million problem drug users in the EU and around 7,500 people die of drug overdoses each year.

According to Edwards, the European Union is a forum for developing debate and global recommendations while at the level of Member States, real policies are made and carried out. In other words, the EU provides the "soft" approach to drug policies, while the national governments are in charge of the "hard" approach.

Edwards commented that at this moment there is no Member State that has any intention to change the basis for drug policies, which is the UN Conventions. Therefore the policies and programmes of the EU have to remain within the framework of the UN Conventions.

This year the EU Action Plan on Drugs 2005 - 2008 will come to an end. In the coming months, this plan will be evaluated. This evaluation will be based on information from the European Commission, EMCDDA, Europol and the Member States. We were told that the European Commission was very looking forward to hear realistic and useful experiences from civil society organisations which could be taken aboard in the evaluation process.

In the first session of the Civil Society Forum in December, Mr. Edwards had told us that "there is no war on drugs in Europe", and that we should always base our interventions in the forum on evidence. On the second session of the CSF, ENCOD presented a letter to the European Commission on the fate on Aldo Bianzino. In October 2007 Bianzino was arrested in Italy for growing few cannabis plants and died in prison under mysterious circumstances a few days after.

On the occasion of the second session of the Civil Society Forum on Drug Policy in the European Union, we would like to present a request to you.

We ask your assistance in establishing a dialogue between the government of Italy and the family of Aldo Bianzino, who died under questionable circumstances in the prison of Capanne.

On Friday, October 12th, 2007, Aldo Bianzino, a 44 years old man living with his companion Roberta in Umbria, in the center of Italy, was arrested because of a small cannabis plantation. Both were taken to the police office of the town of Città di Castello, then to the prosecutor’s office in Perugia and finally to the prison in Capanne. On Saturday October 13th the lawyer in charge (Edoardo Maglio) met Aldo at 1.00 pm and Roberta soon afterwards. He informed Roberta that Bianzino was well and that he was worried about her. Maglio is the last civil person who has seen Bianzino alive. The next morning, October 14th, at 08.10 AM, Bianzino is found dead by two prison staff members.

In the conclusion of the progress review of the action plan on drugs 2005-2008 it is said that “available data do not always provide a proper insight as to whether the outputs of the Action Plan have had an impact on the problem they are trying to address.” In the evaluation of the EU Action Plan 2000 - 2004 by the EMCDDA in October 2004, the same problem had been noticed. Then it was explained as follows: “the indicators are considered too vague to allow evaluation reports to show if there has been any concrete impact on them”.

There is nothing in this progress review that allows the reader to conclude if the efforts to obtain the aim of the Action Plan (“to significantly reduce the prevalence of drug use among the population and to reduce the social and health damage caused by the use and trade in illicit drugs") have been successful or not. We read about the establishment of agencies, policy programmes, organisation of meetings, data collecting mechanisms, etc. But there is no information that allows us to judge the value of all these things for the impact of drug policy.

Today, the deadline expires for applications to the budget line on “Drug Prevention and Information 2007-2013’. This budget line was originally created to facilitate ways in which European citizens who are daily affected by the drug issue could have their say in decision-making processes. Instead, the European Commission has converted it into a tool to ensure their voices will be excluded from these processes.