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.