1. 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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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. -The End-
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