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February 19, 2020 Stop to repeat drug dealers, even if the crime is "minor". The government thinks of a tightening "to immediately arrest those who commit this crime with custody in prison". The announcement was made today by the Minister of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, who is working on a law together with her colleague of Justice, Alfonso Bonafede.

The phenomenon is well known and has long been a source of frustration for the police: serial pushers found to sell drugs by agents are brought to the barracks, but the next day they are again 'at work' on the street. The loophole is provided by paragraphs 5 and 5 bis of article 73 of the 1990 single text on drugs which provides for the possibility of "minor" drug offenses to access the conditional suspension of the sentence (imprisonment from six months to four years and the fine from € 1,032 to € 10,329) and to the work of public utility instead of serving the prison sentence.

Together with Bonafede, explained Lamorgese, "we are working on a rule to overcome the current provision of article 73 paragraph five which does not provide for the immediate arrest for drug dealing cases and we have found a solution that convinces both us and Justice". The option that is being focused is to raise the minimum penalty for repeat offenders so that they cannot escape arrest. "It has been pointed out the fact - to underline the minister - that arresting, without custody in prison, and the day after seeing the drug dealer taken the day before in the same street corner, also affects the demotivation of the police personnel who are so committed on this side and sees its business being put into thin air when the next day we find them in the same place ".

Satisfaction with the novelty in the pipeline was expressed by the National Police Officers Association. "The retail sales activities - says the spokesman Girolamo Lacquaniti - are now characterized by death sellers who, taking advantage of the current legislation, are in possession of reduced quantities just to avoid prison. We have always insisted on the need to have a system that guarantees the effectiveness of the sanction and in the specific case of the shop, this need has now become an absolute urgency. The commitment and work done daily by members of the police force in the squares of the shops in all urban centers in fact, today he is mortified by the impossibility, in fact, of applying restrictive measures of personal liberty towards subjects caught in the act of drug offense and regularly released after less than 48 hours. We therefore hope - concludes Lacquaniti - that what has been declared today by Minister Lamorgese can find full implementation in a short time ".