Drugs, the Mantua model: propaganda and repression

The Government has recently transmitted to the Chambers the Annual Report on Drugs. The document, edited by the Department for Anti-Drug Policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, should provide an updated picture of the phenomenon of addictions and public intervention in our country. What is striking, once again, is the tone and approach of the preface by Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano , which represents in all respects the political direction of the Government on the subject, also in view of the Conference on Drugs in November. A reading that, while calling for some more intervention on the front of services, confirms the repressive and moralizing approach that characterizes the current majority.

Mantovano celebrates the action of the police and the judiciary against drug trafficking, reporting an “ intensification of work ” which however – he emphasizes – has not led to legislative changes. He thus slyly omits to recall that the Caivano decree , which increased penalties for minor drug-related offences, has had its effects throughout 2024. This confirms the Government’s approach which insists on a model based on criminal law and repressive intervention, avoiding questioning a regulation – the Consolidated Law of 1990 – which for decades has produced more harm than good, as documented by the sixteenth edition of the White Paper on Drugs , which is being presented to the Chamber today. Thirty-five years after the entry into force of the Consolidated Law on Drugs, the numbers leave no room for interpretation: the repressive system designed by the Jervolino-Vassalli law is not only still fully operational, but continues to produce devastating effects in both social and criminal terms. The snapshot taken by the 2025 edition of the White Paper confirms – in absolute data as well as in trends – what has already been denounced in the fifteen previous editions: we are facing an announced, systemic, structural failure.

Article 73 , dealing and small-scale dealing in particular, remains a relentless machine for entering the Italian judicial and prison system. It brings more than a third of inmates to prison: the numbers of overcrowding are such as to evoke the spectre of conviction for inhuman and degrading treatment, inflicted on Italy in 2012 by the ECHR. This is no coincidence. As we have been repeating for years, the crux of the matter is political even before it is legal: the bulk of criminal repression comes from drug policies, and without a paradigm shift on this front, any discussion of decarceration remains empty. The simulations are confirmed year after year: without the inmates for article 73 or those declared drug addicts, the problem of overcrowding simply would not exist . It is time to admit that these are no longer " side effects " of the anti-drug legislation. After 35 years of application, they must be read for what they are: desired effects, tools of social control, results of a specific political choice. And as such, they must be denounced and opposed.

Undersecretary Mantovano calls for increased prevention action , particularly in schools, where – as stated in the government report – “information initiatives on the harms of drugs” are increasing. He underlines the involvement of the police force, even “from primary school” with themed competitions. An approach that transforms school into a propaganda tool, rather than a place of critical and informed education. Instead of promoting evidence-based policies and secular information, a paternalistic and stigmatizing model is proposed, which has demonstrated its ineffectiveness over the years. Meloni 's plenipotentiary thus also takes credit for the drop in substance use among adolescents (ESPAD 2024 data). It is a pity that the data remain in the statistical interval of at least twenty years and are compatible with those presented in last year's report, which in reverse had justified Mantovano's alarm. Just as there was no alarm last year, and the increase was relative to the COVID years, there is no credit to be given today when the data is slightly decreasing.

It thus confirms that drugs are an exceptional tool for the security narrative, which risks obscuring the real health and social priorities. Just look at how much space the Government has dedicated to fentanyl, the subject of a National Plan launched in March 2024. The emphasis is on the construction of imminent danger and the international attention is called to the Italian model. Fortunately, the epidemiological evidence does not justify alarmism: if it is right to monitor and prevent the possible spread of synthetic opioids, it would be necessary to move away from an emergency and fragmented logic. The Essential Levels of Assistance for Harm Reduction ( HRR ) remain a dead letter, while, blinded by ideology, there is a lack of a systemic vision that can truly guarantee rights and effective pathways for treatment and reduction of risks and harm.

Reading the White Paper and the Government Report together is a good exercise in knowledge, which confirms the urgent need for a paradigm shift. We need a law that definitively overcomes the prohibitionist approach, made of stigma, marginalization and repression. We need to invest in harm reduction and in the rights of people who use drugs, restoring dignity, resources and professional autonomy to public and private social services. The White Paper is promoted by La Società della Ragione, Forum Droghe, Antigone, CGIL, CNCA, Associazione Luca Coscioni, ARCI, LILA with the support of A Buon Diritto, Comunità di San Benedetto al Porto, Funzione Pubblica CGIL, Gruppo Abele, ITARDD, ITANPUD, Meglio Legale, EUMANS and ICARO Volontariato Giustizia ODV. The report can be downloaded for free here.

*Drug Forum

FROM

Leonardo Fiorentini