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Sign the petition to the Russian president

Petition to the Russian President

October 15, 2009

You can read Denis story and suppoort the petition to the Russian President. Recently, at a meeting of the Russian State Security Council, the President have spoken about the need to change the juridical practice in drug-related cases, which at the current moment is not focused on the prosecution of large-scale drug dealers, but predominantly on drug dependent people. According to his words, with regard to non-violent crimes, committed by drug dependent people, drug treatment should be considered as an alternative to imprisonment. Referring to the international experience, Medvedev suggested to provide a choice between drug treatment and imprisonment for non-violent drug crimes. We call on the President to start implementing this system in Russia right now! If Denis Matveev is found guilty by court, he should be given a chance to get treatment instead of imprisonment and this can serve as a precedent to changing the law enforcement practice towards drug dependent people, and providing them real help, instead of attempts to get rid of them, by locking them up in prisons!