All those in favour

Date: 11/12/1997

When it comes to the question of drugs, just where does the European Commission stand in the great legalisation debate?

At a major international conference on drugs policy in Bangkok last month, Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Anita Gradin once again pinned her 'prohibitionist' colours to the mast with a fiery speech on the dangers of “deadly” new strains of the drug Ecstasy and the need to build “an efficient and coherent anti-drugs strategy”.

Again and again Gradin stressed her desire for EU member states to work together in order to eradicate the drugs problem across the continent.

But the Commission does not appear to be speaking with one voice on this issue: Gradin's Commission colleague Emma Bonino will today (11 December) address a two-day European Parliament conference on the arguments for decriminalising narcotics.