The National Anti-Mafia Directorate in favor of the legalization of marijuana

Legalizing cannabis would be a boost for the Italian Justice in terms of men and resources as well as a significant damage to the interests of organized crime and terrorism: the DNA writes its opinion to the Government on the bill that will soon arrive in the Chamber.

Minister Lorenzin declares herself against the legalization of cannabis because, in her opinion, "the criminal market remains standing"? The denial, dry and documented, this time does not come only from the opposition benches but from the authoritative voice of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate which in an official opinion addressed to the Government (pro. 20217/2016) "expresses a positive opinion for all the proposed laws that aim to legalize the cultivation, processing and sale of cannabis and its derivatives"

According to the DNA, "legalization, in fact, if correctly implemented, could lead to a significant release of human and financial resources in various sectors of the Public Administration (FFOO, Penitentiary Police, Prefecture officials, etc.)". The criticisms of those who already in these days say that a new law on cannabis would not free up State resources are therefore falling. The Anti-Mafia Directorate, on the contrary, claims "an even more significant release of resources in the Justice sector, where there are tens of thousands of criminal proceedings that require the commitment of Magistrates, Clerks and Judicial Officers, with often completely inconclusive results as sanctions are imposed that remain on paper".

And if it is true that legalizing soft drugs would lead to "a dead loss - as DNA writes - of important financial resources, for the mafias and for the criminal underworld that, to date, have a monopoly on trafficking", on the other hand there would be a simultaneous acquisition of financial resources for the State, through the collection of excise duties". And also for the fight against terrorism (a priority element of the international political agenda) we could witness "the drying up, in a broader perspective of legalization at European level, of economic and financial resources for the fundamentalist terrorism that controls the Afghan production of cannabis".

In conclusion, (writes the National Anti-Mafia Directorate) we could witness "a real relaunch - through the release and acquisition of the aforementioned resources - of the strategic action of contrast, which must aim to impact on the (truly intolerable) aspects of aggression and threat that drug trafficking brings both to public health (through the spread of hard and synthetic drugs) and to the economy and free competition (through money laundering)".

So while Minister Lorenzin declares in an interview with Il Mattino that "the whole issue of marijuana liberalization is a business because the criminal market remains standing" the words of the DNA induce us to have a different look at the progress of the bill that will arrive in the Chamber in the next few days. "The Government must not be held hostage, at least this time, by the blackmail of moderate fundamentalists" warns Civati, leader of Possibile. "There would be serious risks for the health of the youngest" says the Drug Agency while for Fratoianni (SI) we should have the "courage to recognize that prohibition in this country has been nothing but manna from heaven for drug traffickers".