Belsat spoke with a member of the United Civil Party Pavel Stefanovich who wants to run for the House of Representatives. The main points of his program include the fight against domestic violence and the legalization of cannabis.
– Our opposition has repeatedly stated that we do not have real elections and only those who are on the list of the authorities will go through. Nevertheless, you are going to the polls. What is it: self-promotion, you want to be remembered so young, creative, beautiful?
– It seems to me that my program is no PR, because it corresponds exactly to modern standards and trends around the world: in Europe, in Latin America, in the United States. Both the fight against domestic violence and the legalization of cannabis are ways that the Western civilization is going. I understand that there is no real election in Belarus, and the likelihood that some of the opposition will be in the new parliament is very small. But every 4 years we have the opportunity to talk with our voters, to talk about the problems that each of us considers important. So I chose the topics that concern all of us. Every fourth Belarusian woman is a victim of domestic violence, a few hundred people a year end up in jail because of the fact that they use marijuana. Naturally, this is a big problem. We have the whole of society to deal with them, but not by methods which are usually used by our government.
– We have a lot of public organizations, the state also has projects to combat domestic violence – there are special rooms where a woman can stay if she is in danger. Will you have something new or are there not enough programs in our country?
– We have a draft law providing for the main work not only with the victim, but also the perpetrator, with the person committing the violence, crime. The purpose of the law is to isolate a man from the family. This isolation is not necessarily associated with deprivation of liberty. This may be a protective body that would prevent this person from approaching the victim, so that he would leave the room where the crime took place, even if he is the owner, so that he had no right to know the whereabouts of his victim, if she is against, and so on. Such measures, which are able to isolate the victim and the perpetrator for a period of 15 days to 6 months, as well as the prosecution will be able to change our situation.
– What about the legalization of cannabis?
– The idea that cannabis should be banned is not ours, the idea came from the West, of which we talk badly so often, including our authorities. This is the western idea. It all started in the first half of the XX century – it was a strong lobbying of the companies that make paper from trees, as hemp was also used to make paper. US dollars, the US Constitution were printed on hemp paper once. After World War II, hemp was banned in order to limit the anti-war movement, for example, the hippie movement. Then wanted to demonize the movement, say that these people were drug addicts, as they used cannabis. These things were banned in the West not because of their big problems for human health, but because it was a political and economic step.
– Who will do it? Who will grow hemp: collective and state farms?
– Naturally, the cultivation of cannabis is a promising business for our agriculture, which is not in the best situation. Moreover, hemp can be used not only for smoking, but also to produce from it the fabric, clothes, shoes, make oil and so on. We have a large field to implement this policy.
– In our country, promotion of drugs is banned. Would not there be problems with the law?
– My goal in this campaign is to alienate the people from the worst things, for example, from the spice, from the prison, and to offer them a more humane, more healthy and more moral alternative for our country.
– Who do you think is your audience?
– Naturally, it’s the people of 35-40 years old with an income above average, who traveled a lot in Europe and know that the measures I suggest do not lead to the rampant drug abuse.
Lyubou Lunyova, belsat.eu
