Pubdate: Fri, 18 June 1999 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: Guardian Media Group 1999 Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Author: Jon Henley, in Paris SWISS GO SOFT ON ECSTASY Switzerland's highest court has flown in the face of European drug legislation and the latest US scientific evidence by ruling that ecstasy poses no big health problems and that small-scale dealing in the drug should not be a serious crime. Effectively classifying ecstasy as a "soft" drug like cannabis, the Swiss federal tribunal overturned a one-year jail term handed to a man convicted of selling 1,000 tablets of the drug. It confirmed a nine-month sentence given to another man for selling 1,350 tablets by a court that considered the case was not a "serious" offence. The tribunal said that while ecstasy was in no way harmless, medical evidence showed it was less dangerous than cocaine and heroin, largely because it was not addictive. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake