Brussels, 24/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The member of the Bonino List, Marco Cappato MEP, who for ten years now has been leading an drug "antiprohibitionist" campaign, was arrested in Manchester on 21 March and sentenced to a week in prison for having refused to pay a fine inflicted on him for n act of civil disobedience. On 15 December 2001, the MEP decided to deliberately violate the British "Misuse of Drugs Act", handing himself in to the police in Stockport for being in possession of a small quantity of cannabis. Mr. Capatto who reaffirmed that his aim had not been to show disrespect for the British legal tradition but stressed the "urgent need for antiprohibitionist reforms", hopes that the UN conference of Vienna on 16 and 17 April will be an opportunity to amend the three conventions on drugs which, he stresses, have reduced neither the production or consumption of drugs. Cappato (who, during his incarceration, may only make one phone call a day, only in the United Kingdom), in a statement before his incarceration, recalls: that the ban on drugs "has been instrumental in generating enormous profits for transnational criminal organisations, and in criminalising non-violent offenders such as drug consumers - who do not hurt anybody - and addicts - who should be treated as people in need of medical help".