Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-08-Speech-2-134"

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"Mr President, I should like to congratulate Mrs Buitenweg on the report she has put forward. She has had a very difficult task; getting a consensus on this issue is impossible. However, to get a good majority, I believe, is possible. That majority will largely reflect the views of the people across the European Union. No-one would argue with the fact that we need to seek to reduce the devastating consequences of drug abuse for drug abusers, their families and society as a whole. There is nothing in the report that is contrary to that. We have heard some amazing things from Mr Pirker, Mr Santini, Mr Blokland and others which make one wonder how they chose to interpret the remarks in this report. Mr Pirker, you said a few minutes ago that if you voted in favour of this report, you would be against the health of our young people. Furthermore you said that if you voted in favour of this report you would be helping drug dealers. Really, if you read that into this report, I suggest that you go back and have another read of it. Moreover, if you want your group – the PPE-DE Group – to take that line, I must tell you that it is not just a simplification of the situation, it is a distortion, a gross misrepresentation of what is in the report. People have spoken about zero tolerance. There is absolutely no evidence that zero tolerance is a serious, effective, or even practical policy to follow when we are trying to address this issue. You only have to look at history, at Prohibition in the USA, when there was zero tolerance of alcohol: what a wonderful success that was in solving all the problems they had in the United States! It will not work. There is no evidence to support zero tolerance. I agree with Mrs Boogerd-Quaak when she said that no-one knows the real answer. There is no easy solution. But I believe that in voting for this report we are not saying that the conventions have to be changed but that there is room for an in-depth evaluation. That is why I will be voting for it: to be realistic, to accept society as it is; to be modernistic in our approach; and to be outward-looking. Yes, Mr Pirker, I am looking at the same report as you. We must be outward-looking in this Parliament."@en1
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