Prison admissions: drug-related admissions on the rise

Prison admissions for drugs increased by +4.9% in 2024: a quarter (25.8%) were caused by art. 73 of the Consolidated Law, possession for the purpose of dealing. Of the 61,861 inmates in prison as of 12/31/2024, 13,354 were in prison due to art. 73 alone. Another 6,732 together with art. 74 (association for the purpose of drug trafficking), only 997 exclusively for art. 74. Added together, they represent 34.1% of the total: essentially double the European average (18%) and much more than the world average (22%). Never before have there been so many inmates defined as "drug addicts": 38.8% of those who enter are declared as such, while at the end of 2024 there were 19,755 "certified" inmates, 31.9% of the total.

The weight on justice

There are almost 210,000 ongoing drug trials as of 12/31/2024. Although declining for the fourth consecutive year, people with pending criminal proceedings for drug dealing were 162,828 (-4.4%), while those with proceedings under art. 74 are increasing, 46,972 (+3.3%). The war on drugs is focused on the small fish , as demonstrated by the clear disproportion between people with pending proceedings under art. 73 (80.1%) and under art. 74 (19.9%). The same defendants and those convicted under article 74 are often far from representing the top of the criminal pyramid that manages national and international drug trafficking.

The criminal sphere increases

Whether they are alternatives to prison or probation, the constant growth of these measures expands the area of ​​control rather than limiting the coercive-penitentiary one. As of 12/31/2024, in fact, 93,475 individuals were in charge of alternative measures and community sanctions, almost 10,000 more than in 2023 (+11.6%). Adding prison, the quota of 150,000 people under criminal provisions is exceeded.

Drug use reports. Since 1990, 1.5 million people have been reported for drug use.

In 2024, 36,960 reports were currently registered for mere drug use (art. 75). Of these, approximately 38% ended with an administrative sanction (12,353), the most common being the suspension of the driving license (or the prohibition to obtain it) and passport, even in the absence of any dangerous behavior carried out by the sanctioned person. Repression continues to fall on minors: 3,722 adolescents thus enter a stigmatizing sanctioning process, ultimately desocializing and counterproductive. Almost all of these (97.7%) were reported for cannabis. The "therapeutic" vocation of the report to the Prefect is irrelevant: only 410 people were asked to present a socio-health treatment program; in 2007 there were 3,008. Invitations to present themselves to the SERD also continue to decrease (3,792). The repression mainly affects people who use cannabis (77.4%), followed at a distance by cocaine (15.8%) and heroin (2.8%) and, irrelevantly, other substances. Since 1990, 1,463,442 people have been reported for possession of drugs for personal use, 1,074,754 of these for cannabis derivatives.

FROM

Leonardo Fiorentini