[News] "Zatla" puts thousands of Tunisians in prison ... and demands an amendment to his criminalization

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"We are not sick or criminals, we are artists and creative people who smoke quality, as our grandparents used to call it, and it is different from drugs and poisonous substances." This is how Ayman Rezgui, coordinator of the Movement for the Liberation of Cannabis, or Hemp, or "zatla," as Tunisians call it, began his speech.

Ayman and his colleagues in the movement are working to change Law 52 of 1992 regarding drug consumption and drug trafficking offenses.

Tunisian law No. 52 sti[CENSORED]tes a mandatory prison sentence of one year for everyone convicted of possession of a drug, and five years for those who repeat the same crime, and the sentences reach 10 years imprisonment for anyone who exploits any place to abuse or promote drugs.

"The modern scientific approach in the world confirms that cannabis or cannabis is not classified as dangerous and harmful drugs, and it does not cause health harms or deviations in behavior for adults," Al-Rizki said in an interview with Sky News Arabia .

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Why did criminalization come about?

As for the Tunisian law criminalizing the consumption of hashish, the activist explains that the law came in a special political context during the rule of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In the nineties, Ben Ali's brother was involved in a major international drug-promotion case, and his brother Ben Ali intervened to spare him prison terms, which embarrassed the Tunisian regime before French justice. France even accused the Ben Ali regime at the time of whitewashing the drug trade.

In this historical context, Tunisia issued Law No. 52, which provides the most severe penalties on consumers of all narcotic substances for overcoming the scandal of the Tunisian regime and its whitewashing.

Al-Rizqi asserted that the law "is nothing but a restraining law that is nearly 30 years old, and despite its prohibitive character, it did not limit the consumption of drugs of all kinds. It has spread more, and this law has not been proven to protect young people from the danger of drugs . It is time to think of new approaches after the law was destroyed. Al-Zajri lives more than 120,000 young people who have been subjected to imprisonment and social stigmatization due to hashish consumption.

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" Tunisian law puts all narcotic substances in the same basket, and the situation is that there is a difference between dangerous and chemical drugs and toxic substances whose consumption must be criminalized and the Indian hemp plant or natural hashish on which no toxins are introduced."

He adds, "The issue is humanitarian, and today's reality indicates that there are many creative people and artists who consume hashish and they are not dangerous elements in society, nor addicts, nor even disturbed, and stigmatizing hashish consumers and exposing them to imprisonment is unacceptable."

According to Rezgui, "hashish is sold in Tunisia on the black market by criminals and smugglers, and the state should seriously consider legalizing its sale similar to what many other countries have done, especially since the sale of hashish is in the billions annually, so it has become necessary to legalize its consumption and trade instead of imprisoning and exposing young consumers. Of social exclusion. "

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Demands for change

Many human rights defenders and activists agree that the law criminalizing drug consumption is a harsh law, and they have been calling for a change of it for years.

The late President Beji Qaid Essebsi had previously adopted the demand to amend the drug crimes law, so that a new bill would be submitted on the basis of the consumer's right to treatment and lift the prison sentence for him, but he remained locked up.

Today, he returned to the facade of the discussion about the same law and the demand to change it and free the consumption of hashish due to the incident of the Kef Governorate Court, which sentenced three young men to 30 years in prison for consuming hashish in a sports stadium.

A ruling that many considered shocking and cruel, but a direct interpretation of Law No. 52, as the three young men were referred to court on charges of "creating public space for the consumption of a narcotic substance."

Ramzi al-Jabbali, a civil society activist from the Kef governorate in the north of the country, said, "The accusation directed against his friends allowed them to double their sentences until they reached 30 years of imprisonment for three young men, including the unemployed and those living in difficult social conditions." 

Al-Jabbali stresses that the psychological state of the young men and their mothers is deteriorating, as they are in a "state of shock due to the unfair ruling" that was left by a "law against life," as he put it.

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The need for a review

For his part, Judge Afif Al-Jaidi said, in a statement to Sky News Arabia, that "the penal policy in Tunisia regarding drug consumption needs to be reviewed, as it is based on a deterrent approach and on considering the consumer guilty, an approach that has clearly become useless.

The number of consumers has risen to 200,000 cannabis consumers despite the strict injunctions. Therefore, it is necessary to start towards a new legislative approach that considers drug consumers a victim that deserves treatment.

Al-Jaidi added that "the law to amend the criminalization of drug consumption was stopped in the House of Representatives due to political disputes, and the new bill was distorted on the basis that it encouraged drug consumption."

He went on to say, "Entering the prison due to the consumption of hashish was a gateway for many young people to enter the world of crime and terrorism, as they were drawn into the prisons themselves."

Al-Jaidi stressed the need for a new legal text to replace Law 52, to give priority to treating drug users and not to imprison them or to implement alternative penalties to imprisonment in exchange for tougher penalties for promoters and drug trafficking networks.

It should be noted that a number of parties and politicians are presenting various legislative initiatives to revise Law 52, as the National Reform Bloc called for the adoption of a bill that waives prison penalties and compensates them with financial sins while increasing the penalties for promoters