The IAL's objective is to work toward the repeal of criminal laws that prohibit drugs. The foundation of the IAL was prepared by three groups: the Radical Antiprohibitionist Coordination created by the Italian Radical Party; the European Movement for the Normalization of Drug Policies, adopted at the initiative of Dutch legal experts, psychiatrists, and social workers; and the American Foundation for a New Drug Policy, an organization that assumed and extended the work of the National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws. The founders and promoters of these three movements met in Rome in March 1989 with sympathizers from all over the world. They unanimously endorsed the policy program of the new IAL. The IAL coordinates scientists and scientific and political organizations that support anti-prohibitionism in the matter of drugs; it publishes information as well as promotes public awareness of drugs and the harm the repressive prohibitionist policies cause. The IAL also combats arguments and policies that support prohibition and encourages all forms of action at the national and international level that will defeat prohibition. 49 footnotes