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INTER.VIEW to:

Fabio Bernabei, National Representative Italy at ECAD – European Cities Against

Drugs, Director at OsservatorioDroga (Italy) and author of “Cannabis Medica. 100

Risposti sull’uso terapêutico della Marijuana”.

Dianova Portugal: In the preface to ““Cannabis Medica. 100 Risposti sull’uso

terapêutico della Marijuana”” (Sugarco Edizioni, 2012) you told that you decided to

write this book due to a “personal experience” [surviving a cancer] in a context of

“recognition of the medical marijuana”. Was your book an attempt to challenge

and influence the public opinion, telling that not everything is unavoidable?

Fabio Bernabei: NO. As I a cancer survivor I learned, among others, two lessons.

First, the ill person is a vulnerable one and you have to respect and to protect him not to

try to take any ideological advantages of the illness. Politicians and Organizations were

fighting in the '60 for a Free Drug Policy, now became fond of some medical therapies for

severe diseases. That's hardly believable. The Transnational Radical Party, in its manual "I

Radicali e le droghe", put the "medical strategy" as one of the possible strategy to get the

legalization of drugs. The less radical strategy, they say, but with a bonus: no panic in the

public opinion.

Second, people with cancer or others severe illnesses deserve the most advanced treatment

based on the most innovative medical research, not leaves to smoke. In Italy, the Regional

Health System have no money, just one example, to offer an open full-week radiotherapy

in hospitals and many others basic treatments, but some politicians prefer to spend

hundreds of thousands of Euros of tax money to give marijuana joints to smoke.

Medical cannabis is about ideology not compassion.

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Dianova Portugal: Do you think the Italians are well informed about the use of

marijuana?

Fabio Bernabei: Please look, in the EMCCDA website at the Prevention Profile page

dedicated to Italy: the level of Universal Prevention provisions is reported as a long list of

"NO information". It's a good picture of the level of knowledge of the Italian people on

marijuana and others illicit drugs. The reason? Well, if you know how serious are Italian

politicians, you could better understand why they do prefer to use the public money in

many other ways than in effective social policies.

Dianova Portugal: How is the debate on medical cannabis going on Italy? How is

being the reaction from the anti-prohibitionists to this book?

Fabio Bernabei: There is no debate in Italy on MM (Medical Marijuana/Cannabis) and

the few information available is in one-way only. Just two Italian books in the last 10 years

have been published contesting the medical use of cannabis: mine own for the general

public, and one for experts "Cannabis e danni alla salute" written by Prof. Giovanni

Serpelloni, Director of the National Anti Drug Policy Department. As you can see not so

many for a such an important issue.

The reaction of anti-prohibitionists people to my book? For many of them the Medical

cannabis is a sort of tabu no one could dare to challenge, so they reacted sometimes in a

very aggressive and impolite manner. Others, instead, choose to make ironic comments on

that stupid guy (me) who doesn't understand smoking marijuana will save the world. I don't

care. I prefer to listen the voices of the International Law, the Official Scientific Authorities

and my conscience.

Dianova Portugal: You believe that if medical cannabis was recognized legally and

distributed in the Health National System in Italy, it would increase the production,

the selling and the recreational use of this drug. What did you find out in your

researches about the causes and consequences of the legalization?

Fabio Bernabei: The Italian National Health System couldn't provide any substance

without the approval of the Italian Medicine Agency – AIFA. To avoid the clinical trials the

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Pro Medical Marijuana Lobby invented a sort of approval based on a majority vote of local

politicians in Regional Council for different illnesses and therapies! Tot capita, tot sententiae.

Just to say one, about the rising of criminality, in Canada the increase of the Black Market,

following the political recognition of smoked marijuana "therapeutic" properties, has been

recognized by the Supreme Court. The same judges ruled in 2001 in favor of a "regulated

market" of MM, now are arguing that happened because the "bureaucracy" and the

"quality" of MM from Health Canada's monopoly supplier. The same old story. So after

ten years or so the Supreme Court itself, in order to fight the black market, gave order to

Health Canada to wipe out limitations on growing, selling and use of MM. You bet the

black market will boost again more and more as happened every time in the history, when

an illicit and dangerous drugs has been promoted as "miraculous".

Dianova Portugal: Is “Cannabis Medica” being translated in other languages?

Fabio Bernabei: Not for the moment and it's a pity due to the relevance of the topic,

affecting all nations worldwide. In English language I suggest to read "Cannabiz. The

explosive rise of medical marijuana industry", the author, John Geluardi, has a point of

view opposite of mine but that essay is great for quantity and quality of information on

what's really going on now in USA and soon in Europe.

Dianova Portugal: Your professional background is the investigative journalism.

What is your perception about how the generalized and the specialized media treat

the theme of drug’s production, consumption, distribution and trade? Does it make

sense to call you an activist-journalist?

Fabio Bernabei: In Italy we have some NGO's and Think Tanks specialized on "drug

issue", with their house organs and their level of knowledge is very professional, but still we

have a big gap between them and the mass media.

For that I founded the Osservatorio Droga, member of World Federation Against Drugs-

WFAD, whose mission in the Media arena is to provide information to the general public

for a better and deeper understanding of the "Drug issue" with the aim of a Drug-Free

World.

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In fact, we do believe that the use of any illicit drugs is contrary to the personal dignity of

the human being because they alter, sometimes permanently, the cognitive processes. The

integrity of such cognitive processes is part of the concept of human dignity of being a free

and responsible human person.

Dianova Portugal: The main idea of the book is the complete rejection of the use of

cannabis in the medicine. You support that the scientists do not recognize cannabis

as a medicine. What should the authorities do with the dangerous legal pills

available on the medicinal product market?

Fabio Bernabei: You are right. If also the regular medicinal products recognized safe for

human use after a long series of scientific tests, need a post marketing surveillance to check

suspected adverse reactions, imagine the Cannabis never approved by none of the National

Medicines Agencies! And, yes we have to increase a continuous monitoring of any kind of

medicine.

Dianova Portugal: As you state, marijuana is a business – amateur or very

sophisticated – that generates significant amounts of money. “Cannabis is by far

the most widely cultivated, trafficked and abused illicit drug”, says the WHO. How

can the black market and the organized crime be fought back?

Fabio Bernabei: How? Prevention! Historically the Mafia organizations started to be

involved in drug trafficking after the eruption of the mass-scale Drug demand created

purposely by Beat Generation activists and thinkers. Fighting against the demand, we'll

stop the Mafia activities, now more than ever based on drug related money.

The most successful evidence-based primary prevention comes to us from Iceland. Thanks

to a totally new methodology they stopped the rising of the binge drinking and marijuana

smoking with a substance use going down for 10 years steadily and now close to a 1%

(more info on www.icsra.net). The secret? Broking the isolation of scientific community

from the Government social policies run with a special focus on local community. The

Project "Youth in Europe" set by The Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis

and coordinated by European Cities Against Drugs – ECAD, is now promoting across

Europe the Iceland experience.

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Dianova Portugal: What is your opinion on the Portuguese law that decriminalizes

[does not legalizes] the consumption and possession of all the illicit drugs in small

doses? A report of Cato Institute says “the Portuguese decriminalization framework

has been a resounding success, within this success lie self-evident lessons that

should guide drug policy debates around the world”.

Fabio Bernabei: The Cato Institute invited attorney Glenn Greenwald to conduct a study

of drug policy in Portugal. After only three weeks in Portugal, Greenwald returned to the

United States and wrote a book characterizing the Portuguese drug policy as a huge

success. There were numerous problems with the study including: Greenwald was selective

in the age category he used and largely disregarded the 20 to 24 year old age group in which

drug use increased 50%.

My friend, and collegue in Drug Watch International - DWI, doctor Manuel Pinto Coelho,

chairman of the Association for Drug Free Portugal, in reviewing the study, states that “If

one glances at the numbers related to the prevalence in the total Portuguese population,

there isn't a single drug category, not one, that has decreased since 2001. Between 2001 and

2007, drug consumption in Portugal increased by 4.2% in absolute term”

Portugal remains the country of the highest incidence of IDU (injection drug use) related

AIDS and it is the only country recording a recent increase. More, the EMCDDA in 2011

Surveys show a stable situation regarding cannabis use in Portugal but a possible increase in

cocaine use among young adults. The country still has high levels of problem drug use and

HIV infection and does not show specific developments in its drug situation that would

clearly distinguish it from other European countries that have a different policy. This is

supported by the ONDCP report of 2011 which reviewed the ‘Cato Report’ and found it

lacking in accuracy.

Dianova Portugal: NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of

Marijuana Laws) – that you refer in your book – has a set of “principles of

responsible cannabis use”. Within their concerns, they mention rules like “adult

only”, “no driving”, “resist abuse”, “respect rights of others”. Do you think that

that is possible? Why (not)?

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Fabio Bernabei: NORML, and some other well organized Organizations, convey the

message that cannabis is a relatively harmless drug we could legalize. But when they put in

relation this psychedelic drug with the word "responsible", they are challenging the

Aristotelic principle of non-contradiction. The cannabis is a psychedelic substance, so

altering the personality and judgment skills of the user, for a short-term or lifetime, more

and deeper than others, stimulant or sedative, drugs. Even less overdoses always damages

the integrity of the person's character.

Dianova Portugal: One of the critics to your “100 answers” is a certain ethnocentric

point of view about biomedicine and the use of the cannabis plant. Some people

argue that cannabis is one of the 50 “fundamental” herbs of Traditional Chinese

Medicine. How do you answer to these arguments?

Fabio Bernabei: I was born and I'm living in Rome, a city famous in the history to merge

all the culture and traditions from all over the world. Moreover, I'm catholic and I reject

any xenophobic or racist attitude, nevertheless not everything from the past times it's true.

Relating the Medicinal Marijuana with the Chinese Tradition Herbal Medicine, or other

traditions, it's inappropriate because the very few documents we have never reported the

smoked way as a medical use (the most common for Medicinal Marijuana) and for every

single possible, or supposed, therapeutic needs solved by some cannabis compounds, the

contemporary medical science provided us with a lot of cheap, safe and effective

medicines.

Dianova Portugal: If you had to publish a second edition of “Cannabis Medica”,

what would you update or change?

Fabio Bernabei: No big changes or particular update, but I'd like to write some lines about

my personal experience as a "target" of the Pro-Cannabis Medica "fundamentalists". I think

that could be useful to be clear in our minds.

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-The End-