THE FRANKFURT RESOLUTION

20-22 November 1990, organised by the local Board of Frankfurt am Main (Germany), a very important resolution formulated by the representatives of the cities of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Zurich, is accepted. Text of this "Frankfurt Resolution, November 22th 1990":

"As a result of the first Conference 'European Cities at the Centre of Illegal Trade in Drugs' the representatives of the cities of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Zurich have agreed upon a permanent exchange of experience and cooperation concerning drug-policy. The city of Leipzig has been participating as an observer for the five new federal states of Germany -out of a deep concern regarding possible future developments.

I. We declare:

1/ The attempt to eliminate drugs and drug consumption from our civilizations has failed. The demand for drugs has lingered despite all efforts and everything points to the fact that we will have to continue living with drugs and drug users in the future.

2/ Drug use is based on deficits of society and cannot be prevented by drug policy. At its best drug policy can regulate and limit the results of drug use only. Drug using is for the majority of users a contemporary part of their biography, which can be overcome within the process of maturing out of addiction. Drug policy may not render this process more difficult, but it must support this process.

3/ A drug addiction fighting against addiction exclusively with the criminal law and the compulsion to abstinence and offering governmental and public aid under the assumption of drug-abstinence only has failed: The demand for drugs only is still existing, the social and medical misery of users is increasing rapidly, more and more addicts get infected by HIV, more and more users die, the illegal drug trafficking is spreading making bigger and bigger profits, the dread of people in the cities towards the drug-trafficking and the acquisitive criminality is rising.

4/ Drug related problems are not based upon the pharmacological mode of operation of drugs only, but they are rather a result of illegal drug consumption, which in turn makes drugs unclean, expensive and the dose uncalculable. Illegal drug consumption is the main cause of the misery of users, the cases of death and acquisitive criminality. Criminalization is a counter-part to drug-aid and is a burden for police and justice they cannot carry.

5/ The majority of drug-users live in cities or they come to the capitals, because there is the market, there is the scene and there is drug-aid. Therefore most of all big cities are afflicted with drug-problems and on the other hand the influence of cities concerning drug policy is limited and contradicted to the burden such cities have to carry.

II. We are drawing the following conclusions:

1/ The priorities of drug-policy have to be changed dramatically. The aid for drug-users must nu longer be threated by criminal law. Moreover together with prevention and education it must become the equal aim of drug-policy. In connection with drug related problems it is necessary to lay stress on harm reduction. And repressive forms of intervention must be reduced to the absolute necessary minimum. Prosecution must be limited on fighting illegal drug-trafficking. Everybody who wants to reduce criminality, harm, misery and death must liberate users from the pressure of prosecution concerning the cosumption of drugs and must not tie the offers of drug-aid to the strict goal of total drug-abstinence: vis-a-vis the dead drug-therapy will be an offer too late and aid for survival can be a first step in the direction of maturing out of addiction.

2/ Within drug-policy we need a separation of cannabis and other illegal drugs, whose addictive power, dangerousness and cultural integration are differing from each other enormously.

3/ The distribution of sterile syringes and needles as well as treatment with methadon are important steps to reduce harm.

4/ The option for "Shooting Galleries" providing help, as well as the controlled medical distribution of drugs to long time users, should be tested under unbiased conditions in a scientific frame.

5/ The medically controlled prescribing of drugs to long term users should be considered unbiased in order to minimize the damage done and a scientific testing should be made possible.

6/ We need a much better cooperation concerning drug-policy between the cities and their surrounding regions, as well as among European countries. If only a small number of cities are following a drug-policy that accepts addiction and offers a system of low-thresshold aid, the afflicted cities will attrack drug users like magnets and will be overstressed by the ensueing problems.

III. Therefore we demand:

1/ Our conception of drug-policy must be supported legally, organisationally and financially by the national and federal governments.

2/ The decriminalization of buying, possessing, and consuming Cannabis (like in Holland). The trade of Cannabis products should be controlled legally.

3/ Consumption of drugs, i.e. buying, possesion, and consuming of small quantities of drugs must be declared free of prosecution.

4/ The legal, organizational and financial background for the necessary increase of the prescribing of methadone should be established.

5/ The legislature and the national governments have to prepare the backround for a low-threshold prescribing of methadone (like in Holland) and for a medically indicated and scientifically escorted testing of the giving of drugs. The possibility for a psycho-social aid must be ensured.

IV. Agreement:

In connection with the European unification and the fall of national frontiers we are confronted with a situation that can only be handled on an international basis and has to rely on the cooperation and coordination between the affected cities.

* The representatives of the cities that participated in the Conference agree in close cooperation with the Council of European Communities and the World Health Organisation, section Europe, upon the construction of a cooperation network that ensures the exchange of experiences between the cities on a regular basis. New methods in drug-policy shall be discussed and prepared together.

Therefore the participating cities strive for realising the following: (a) The increase of European coordination with drug related problems, (b) Regular meetings of drug coordinators, (c) Exchange of specialists from the fields of drug treatment, (d) City conference on an annual basis.

The circle of cooperating cities will be enlarged continuously.

We consider it very important that an institution for the scientific research considering drug related problems on a European basis is founded in close cooperation with the Council of European Communities and the WHO section Europe.

The institution will coordinate and manage scientific research and initiate new ways of dealing with the drug problem in order to ensure scientifically new approaches.

The signatories vote for a necessary harmonization of national legal system in regard to the European unification on a basis of a policy of decriminalization and depenalization of drug users and the reduction of harm.

. Paul Vasseur (drugs coordinator Amsterdam),
. Stadtratin Margaretha Nimsch (Dezernat fur Frauen und Gesundheit, Frankfurt am Main),
. Dr Horst Bossong (Drogenbeauftragter Hamburg)
. Stadtratin Emilie Lieberheer (Vorsteherin des Sozialamtes Zurich)."