Belarusian state TV accused opposition of desire to create 'drug-dependent society'

On February 17, the TV channel “Belarus-1” broadcast a propaganda story dedicated to the rally of the “Legalize Belarus” public campaign, which advocated the abolition of the criminal punishment for the storage of “small quantities of controlled substances”.

However, “Belarus-1” stated that the participants of the rally allegedly advocated for the free sale of marijuana and other drugs, even though the activists are in favor of abolishing prison sentences for using marijuana.

The propagandists say activists are led by opposition leaders — in particular, Aleś Łahviniec..

Piotr Markiełaŭ, 17 February 2018.

According to the activist of the “Legalize Belarus” campaign, Piotr Markiełaŭ, Belteleradiocompany employees who produced this video for some reason introduced themselves during the rally as the journalists of Russia Today — they filmed and asked “extremely provocative questions”. But the only the word “yes” was inserted in the story in response to a question about the use of marijuana.

Meanwhile, the activist is grateful to the propagandists, since he believes that this story “will contribute to a public discussion of the problem of 328 in society” (problems of criminal prosecution for the use of light drugs under Article 328 of the Criminal Code).

Later, the Anti-Narcotics Department made inquiries about the activist of the “Legalize Belarus” campaign, Piotr Markiełaŭ.

In a comment to belsat.eu Piotr Markiełaŭ said that representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs called the number that is listed on the website legalize.by.

“I’ve been using the number for 10 years already, but it is registered with my father. They called at his workplace and asked whose number it was. The administration was told that they were from the Anti-Narcotics Department,” said Piotr Markiełaŭ.

belsat.eu