A seriously ill man takes a drag from a medical marijuana
cigarette, at
a protest event held by the Radical Italian Party, at Rome's Piazza
Montecitorio, Nov. 9.
On Pot and Gay
Marriage, America Overtakes Italy (La Repubblica,
Italy)
"It's a
taboo, a debate that you cannot even engage in [marijuana legalization]. So as
not to make fools of themselves, lawmakers prefer to remain silent, avoiding
the subject. ... Who knows? Maybe an imprisoned
lawmaker will at last force parliament to act on the issue. Whoever buys
cannabis for personal use from a drug dealer runs the risk of incurring a fine,
while those who instead cultivate it, not wanting to deal with drug
traffickers, risk up to six years in jail."
Same-sex couples,
cannabis, scholarships for immigrants: from Colorado to Iceland and from
Maryland to France, the world is moving forward quickly - while Italy remains
in the Middle Ages.
"Good news for freedom." That was a tweet from an
America which is more "liberal" than ever. In fact, with Obama's
re-election, new states have voted in favor of gay marriage and saying yes to
recreational marijuana use, while in Florida, the dismantling of the right to
abortion has been prevented. A total of 170 referendums in 32 states
accompanied the presidential election, where the citizens were called to vote
on some decisive civil liberties issues.
And so gay marriage has been approved with large majorities in
Maine, Washington and Maryland, while in Colorado and Washington state, 55
percent of the population said yes to the recreational use of cannabis. In the
meantime, Massachusetts joined the 17 other states where medical cannabis is
already legal, and Florida residents rejected Amendment
6, commissioned by Republicans, who sought to prohibit the use of public
funds for abortion or health insurance to women who need it. And the good news
isn't over yet. In Maryland, another referendum is bound to spark debate: the
approval of a measure that will allow undocumented immigrants to obtain scholarships
if they can prove to have attended high school for at least three years.
There was also some good news out of France, where Hollande has given his unequivocal support for gay
marriage, guaranteeing that the new couples will have every right to adopt
children, like all married couples. With France, there have become eight
European countries where homosexuals have the same rights at heterosexual ones.
Holland opened the dance with a law that went into force April 1, 2001, after a
four year parliamentary commission.
"I was a strong opponent of gay marriage back then, I
was scared," said Senator Hannie
van Leeuwen on the law's anniversary last year: "But
now, having seen so many gay and lesbian couples married happily, I realize how
wrong I was."
Iceland is the most recent to approve a law in this direction:
the very same day it went into force on June 27, 2010, Prime Minister JóhannaSigurđardóttir married
her partner. So while from Belgium to South Africa, same sex couples can
celebrate their weddings, in Italy there is not even a question of civil
unions. There are no records in some areas, but at the national level, every
proposal is being rejected. And this is not the only issue parliament seems palsied
over: even worse things happen when someone introduces the word
"legalization," which is so appreciated in the states.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
"It's a taboo, a debate that you cannot even engage in.
So as not to make fools of themselves, they [MPs] prefer to remain silent,
avoiding the subject," Radical deputy Rita Bernardini said furiously.
She's the one who decided to resort to civil disobedience to trigger discussion,
with three saplings, now thriving, planted during a parliament press
conference: "It was June 18. I was also interviewed by the CNN, which came
all the way there to tell the story. But in Italy? Absolute silence. Even if
every day I posted pictures of my plants on Facebook,
the police would refuse to step in."
So much so, that she is now ready to press charges against
police for failing to intervene. That is because MP Bernardini, who has been on
hunger strike for two weeks to bring attention to the problems in Italian
prisons, wants to go to jail for ] growing: "Who knows? Maybe an imprisoned
lawmaker will at last force parliament to act on the issue. Whoever buys
cannabis for personal use from a drug dealer runs the risk of incurring a fine,
while those who instead cultivate it, not wanting to deal with drug
traffickers, risk up to six years in jail."
On Friday, she and her Radical Party will be in the PiazzoMontecitorio to call for an end to prohibition,
and she will be giving her buds to the sick, because, she said: "They are
the first to suffer from this parliamentary taboo. Pharmaceutical cannabinoids, even if legal in Italy, are very hard to find."
