Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
The arrest of blogger and activist Azyz Amami and photographer Sabri Ben Mlouka May 12 on marijuana charges has enhanced calls to reform Tunisia’s drug laws. Law 52 currently provides for sentences of up to five years in prison and a 3,000 dinar ($1,900) fine for consumption or possession of “narcotic plants and substances.”
Tunisia Live asked activists and experts for their opinions about reforming the law.
Ghazi Mrabet, lawyer with the Al Sajin 52 campaign:
“We called for the amendment of law. In the Al Sajin 52 (‘Prisoner 52’) initiative, we want the heavy penalty to be reduced for the drug user. He can be fined or have a suspended sentence or do community service. The [campaign’s] proposed draft law is about treatment and prevention, treatment at the expense of their family. And we want increase the penalty for the drug dealer. Now it is between six and ten years.” [display_posts type="related" limit="3" position="right"]
Radhia Nasraoui, lawyer specializing in human rights :
“I’m for the amendment of Law 52 in a way that only the drug dealers will be penalized. Many students get arrested and miss their exams and the one-year sentence destroys their lives. Maybe the fact that marijuana is prohibited makes youth curious about it and want to try it, but once it is not [illegal] they will probably lose interest. We have to find a way to fix this problem through treatment, and I think the penalty should be heavier for dealers. With no dealers there are no drugs.”
Naziha Rjiba, activist and journalist also known as “Oum Zied”:
“I think the controversy about Law 52 is another Persepolis so the Islamists will win again. Our elites want to show that they are very modern and they end up focusing on the peripheries and ignoring the center. In our real battles, our elites hide their heads.”
“I think this campaign to change Law 52 will eventually damage Azyz Amami and the other young people. In principle I am against allowing drugs. I’m a mother and a teacher and I taught in high school. I cannot sympathize with drugs.”
Walid Zarrouk, head of the Union of Republican Security Forces:
“Law 52 was used as a tool in the former regime. Only the poor with no connections were arrested. The law was only activated against students and young people. This law destroyed their future and made them criminals. A student or a public officer imprisoned over smoking pot. The law should be amended in a way that provides a deterrent provision, like being fined or one year of parole for example.”
Adel Almi, president of the Tunisia Zaitouna Party
“The reason for which they want to amend Law 52 is not acceptable to me. They want to amend the law because of the arrest of this person (Aziz). We already made a suggestion before to amend this law so that when the person is arrested for the first time for consumption he has to go into treatment and in the second instance the punishment is stronger. The drug dealers’ sentence should be a deterrent. They are selling drugs to kids in the schools. Drugs are available now in middle schools and high schools. Making the situation look common and easier than it really is, is dangerous. When I visited prisons, I heard tragedies of young people destroyed for one single moment that changed their lives. Drugs can lead to dangerous repercussions. It leads to crimes and prisons and prisons lead to more crimes.”
The post Ask the Experts: Reforming Tunisia’s Drug Laws appeared first on Tunisia Live.