Drugs trafficking in Europe is a big business, worth as much as 24 billion euros, according to the European drug monitoring body EMCDDA. This money is going into the hands of criminal networks, and thus cannabis legalization would enormously help in fighting organized crime. Will Italy pave the way?

The 2016 report released by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), in collaboration with Europol, estimates that the drug market in Europe is worth as much as €24 billion, which makes illegal drug trafficking one of the most profitable activities for organized crime (including terrorist networks).

In other words, illegal drugs are enriching criminal networks all around Europe - a problem that could be easily solved with the legalization of these substances. Legalization would take the drug money out of criminals' hands and return it to European states, which would be an extremely efficient way to fight crime.

Cannabis first

A reform to legalize all drugs is obviously a huge step. Because of this, the reform could at first be limited to the legalization of cannabis, and results would still be very impressive.

According to the EMCDDA report, marijuana is indeed the most important segment of the European drug market, as it represents as much as 38 percent of all drug sales, with a revenue between €8.4 and €12.9 billion a year.

Legalizing cannabis would thus deprive criminal networks of as much as 12 billion euros per year.

Successful experiences of full cannabis legalization (regulating cultivation, possession and sale) in Uruguay and in the U.S. states of Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska have already paved the way for such a reform. When will other European states follow suit?

Italy: an example for Europe?

In Italy, a major campaign asking for cannabis legalization, Legalizziamo, is underway: Radicali Italiani and Associazione Coscioni, together with the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties (CILD), Forum Droghe, Lapiantiamo and many other associations, have indeed presented a popular law initiative and are currently in the process of collecting the necessary signatures to have it considered.

Among the arguments used by the campaigners to explain why cannabis legalization is really a must, there is also the consideration that criminal networks all over the world are making big money out of drug trafficking. "Let's take all this money out of the hands of the mafia," has been a key campaign message for the effort to legalize cannabis.

If you are an Italian citizen and want to support the initiative, sign it! Otherwise, please share and voice your support for the movement to legalize cannabis as the only way to ensure public health and fight crime.