Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2001
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2001 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Andrew Osborn in Bern

SPLIFFS IN THE PARK AND A SHOP SELLING HEMP

Europe's War On Cannabis

Dope is now so popular in Switzerland that the authorities have decided to 
decriminalise its use, cultivation and possession.

It is barely lunchtime but the air at the Munsterplattform park in the 
Swiss capital is already thick with the sweet and distinctive smell of 
marijuana. Around a hundred joints are smouldering in the summer sunshine, 
dangling from the lips of scores of teenagers lounging on manicured lawns.

It may not look like it but this is the frontline of Europe's war of 
attrition on soft drugs, a war which governments across the continent, 
including Britain, know they are losing and a war which it is increasingly 
recognised cannot be fought using heavy-handed policing.

In the park, there is no sign of police and nobody is trying to conceal 
what they are doing - for in Bern, Switzerland's German-speaking capital, 
smoking dope is almost as popular as smoking cigarettes and the police have 
long since given up hounding "hash-heads".

Cannabis consumption has soared in the past 10 years and weed is now so 
popular and common that the Swiss authorities, renowned more for their 
alpine conservatism than their liberal values, have taken a historic 
decision to decriminalise its use, cultivation and possession.

The government has tabled a proposal to that effect and in the autumn 
parliament will begin debating the legalisation. Officials are confident 
decriminalisation will happen by 2003 following a referendum on the issue.

It is simply a question of facing up to "social reality", said the interior 
minister, Ruth Dreifuss. "Switzerland has realised that the contradiction 
between law enforcement and the need to assist drug addicts must be overcome."

In the 90s Switzerland was infamous for Zurich's "Needle Park", where 
junkies would openly inject heroin. But today officials admit that cannabis 
is the drug of choice and they concede that young people are not put off by 
the fact that smoking a spliff remains a criminal offence.

Witness Growland, which claims to be Europe's first hemp shop, a stone's 
throw from Munsterplattform park. It looks like a new age boutique. Beige 
shirts, shorts and blouses, all made from hemp, jostle for attention with 
cosmetics and Indian-style shoulder bags. But an enormous cannabis plant 
pressed against the glass gives the game away.

Loophole

At the stroke of 12 a door creaks open and a burly ponytailed man wearing 
an Hawaiian shirt hauls out a sandwich board proclaiming it open. By five 
past the hour a score of young people are queuing in the shop's dimly lit 
cellar to exchange their Swiss francs for 10-gram bags of Swiss outdoor 
hemp. It may look like potpourri but hemp is the principal ingredient of 
cannabis, marijuana and hashish, and the dessicated flowers and seeds in 
the small plastic bags are regarded as perfect joint-making material.

Technically the shop could be prosecuted for selling soft drugs. A loophole 
means, however, that as long as it claims to be selling hemp for 
non-recreational purposes - for perfuming homes or for medicinal reasons - 
it cannot be shut down. There are around 25 such hemp shops in Bern and 125 
nationwide in a country of just 7m people.

Growland's manager, Peter "Monkey" Zysett, said: "The law is out of step 
with reality. Is it correct to make criminals out of 600,000 people in 
Switzerland? [the estimated number of dope smokers].

"Parents have been misinformed and told cannabis is dangerous and addictive 
but those stories have been discredited. Politics moves slowly but the 
market shows that it [decriminalisation] works. Millions of francs go to 
the government instead of the mafia and that is opening people's eyes."

Mr Zysett is adamant he runs a respectable business and more and more 
people in Switzerland seem to agree with him. He sells only to people over 
18, and only hemp as opposed to magic mushrooms and more dangerous 
synthetic drugs, and he pays his taxes on time which is why, he surmises, 
Growland has been raided just once by the police in its eight-year history.

"The public is no longer afraid," he enthused. "They realise that legal 
drugs such as alcohol and nicotine are more dangerous than cannabis. But at 
the moment if you smoke a joint at the age of 16 or 18 and get caught it 
can ruin your life and that's just stupid.

"I've been smoking four or five joints a day for the past 20 years and I'm 
living proof that there's no problem with it. My mind is not especially 
rotten."

At the Swiss federal office of public health, the country's top health 
official agrees that decriminalisation is the way to go. "We're on the 
verge of understanding that our society can live with cannabis under 
certain conditions," said Thomas Zeltner.

He has little time for the idea that cannabis is a "gateway" drug which 
leads to consumption of harder drugs. "Our data and experience show that is 
not true. We don't have illicit cannabis being sold on street corners in 
parallel with cocaine and heroine any more. There has been a complete split 
in the market."

Under the government's proposals shops such as Growland would be officially 
sanctioned and no longer have to pretend the hemp they sell is for 
non-recreational purposes. That would be great news for Swiss farmers who 
grow hemp - it is estimated they could rack up sales of almost UKP 700m a 
year were cannabis formally legalised.

Tolerance

"We're talking about a window of tolerance where we say that if you produce 
cannabis and sell it in very special shops, only to adults, not to 
foreigners and in small quantities we will tolerate it," said Professor 
Zeltner. The limit would be five grams per visit per customer and 
advertising would not be allowed.

Nor would joint lovers be punished for enjoying a spliff in public. In the 
stricter French- and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland they can be 
fined up to 150 Swiss francs (UKP 60) and cautioned.

But Professor Zeltner warns the idea that smoking cannabis is without risk 
is a myth. "At work or behind the wheel it can generate accidents and in 
the long term it has similar effects to tobacco, causing lung disorders and 
cancer."

However, a joint now and then is small beer, he admits.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens