Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2007
Source: Messenger, The (Georgia)
Copyright: 2007 The Messenger
Contact:  http://www.messenger.com.ge/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3587
Author: Nino Mumladze
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

PRESIDENT DECLARES WAR ON DRUGS

President Mikheil Saakashvili has launched a large-scale anti-drug 
campaign, with efforts to tighten laws on drug dealers as well as 
drug users. During his annual address to parliament on March 15, 
Saakashvili proposed a legislative initiative that would envisage 
confiscating property not just of drug dealers, but of their close 
relatives as well.

"I propose that we adopt a law by which drug dealers not only are put 
in prison, but also have their property, acquired through ruining our 
people and our young people, confiscated," he sais, going on to state 
this would include the property of close relatives as well, if it was 
acquired through illegal activity.

Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili echoed the president's initiative 
in an interview with Georgian Public Broadcasting the next day. He 
said drug-addiction has reached a critical point, becoming one of the 
most acute problems in the country. Merabishvili emphasized the 
"unfortunate" tolerance of addicts by Georgian society, but saying 
"this high tolerance doesn't extend to drug dealers."

Merabishvili said his ministry plans "to strip drug addicts of 
certain rights," such as the right to have a driver's license. He 
stated that the ministry will also send a list of known drug addicts 
to Tbilisi-based embassies asking them not to issue visas to these people.

Merabishvili stated outright that unlike neighbouring countries such 
as Armenia, drug use is a problem among state officials, and that the 
breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia serve as free zones 
for drug trafficking.

Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and Civil 
Integration, MP Elene Tevdoradze, welcomes a tough fight against drug 
dealers. Tevdoradze claims that any property gained at the price of 
somebody's life, should be confiscated. "If we give a sentence of 
life imprisonment for murder, this [drug dealing] is no milder 
wrongdoing. Drugs are destroying a whole generation," she told The Messenger.

Tevdoradze's statements resemble sentiments in Saakashvili's speech, 
"Everyone is equal under the law and nobody who murders people can be 
considered a good person, after all drug dealers kill people."

Tevdoradze is also for the confiscation of relatives' property, if a 
court or an investigation proves the property was obtained through 
selling drugs, weapons or the like. But she also emphasizes a 
necessary condition the investigation must be objective and unbiased 
to avoid using this law as tool of revenge on somebody, "as sometimes happens".

The president's drivce to fight drug dealers is largely shared by the 
parliamentary opposition as well, with only minor divergences in opinion.

"Generally we [the New Rights party] are unanimously for any sort of 
rigorous fight against drug dealers and will certainly support 
related legislative initiatives," said Mamuka Katsitadze from the New 
Rights while talking to The Messenger.

However, regarding the confiscation of property belonging to 
relatives of the dealer, Katsitadze finds this part a bit vague and 
hopes it is not a mere PR opportunity. He says it must be determined 
by the law who can actually be considered a 'close' relative. 
"Otherwise, if due to one black sheep, they are strip the property 
from descendents in the whole bloodline, it's senseless," Katsitadze says.

Katsitazde puts the blame for Georgia's drug problem on the Interior 
Ministry, as the body is not keen on searching for dealer links 
within ministries and other state structures. As for the users, they 
should be simply considered as ill people who need help, Katsitadze says.

The opposition Democratic Front faction also backs the new campaign, 
but with some reservations. MP Gia Tortladze told The Messenger 
everyone in Georgia is aware of users as well as dealers, who are 
often linked to and housed by the Interior Ministry. "The double 
standard in this regard, when they only arrest those dealers working 
on their own, and not touching the ones that are attached to them, 
raises contradictions and astonishment," states Tortladze.

Tortladze says drug users are judged too harshly in Georgia, facing 
large fines and even lengthy imprisonment in case of multiple 
offences. He says systems like those in many European countries 
should be set up, where drug addicts can be prescribed methadone and 
other medicines to help them with their addiction.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman