CANNABIS DECRIMINALISATION GAINING GROUND IN EUROPE

There has been a clear tendency in many European countries to ease drug
policy: many countries have effectively decriminalised the use of cannabis,
and some have even stopped prosecuting users of hard drugs.

The pioneer in liberal drug policy is The Netherlands, where cannabis
products have been openly available since the 1970s. Today adults can buy
marijuana and hashish at special "coffee shops" without fear of prosecution.

To the surprise of many anti-drug activists, the number of drug-related
deaths in the Netherlands is one of the lowest in Europe. So the classical
gateway theory, according to which the use of cannabis leads to hard drugs,
does not seem to hold true - at least not among the Dutch.

According to a study by the Trimbos Institute - the Netherlands Institute
of Mental Health and Addiction, the decriminalisation of cannabis has not
led to great popularity of the drug among young people. Whereas in Britain,
41% of 15-year-olds Britain have tried cannabis, the equivalent figure in
The Netherlands is 24%.

Belgium lifted the ban on personal use of cannabis at the beginning of this
year. Sale and the possession of large amounts of the drug remain illegal,
and no Dutch-style coffee shops will be popping up on Belgian city streets.
In the view of the Belgian Ministry of Health, there is no reason to treat
cannabis any differently from alcohol or tobacco.

Switzerland also plans to legalise both the use and small-scale sale of
cannabis. Many shops are already selling drug-grade hemp, ostensibly for
other purposes. Cannabis would be rather difficult to uproot from
Switzerland, as about one in every four young Swiss already smoke marijuana
or hashish.

Switzerland has had one of Europe's most liberal drug policies. Heroin
addicts considered incurable are given free heroin in supervised
conditions. However, in 1998 Switzerland rejected an initiative that would
have legalised all drugs.

Italy and Spain have permitted the use of all drugs for a long time. The
most recent country to take a more moderate approach toward drugs is
Portugal, where new legislation comes into effect in July.

There has been talk in Denmark of following the Dutch example. It is
already standard police practice not to confiscate drugs found on an
addict. The practical logic behind this approach is that taking the drugs
away would force the addict to commit more crimes to get a new dose.

Practice in Greece seems quite bizarre from the Finnish point of view: the
use of cannabis can bring a more severe sentence than taking heroin.
According to this reasoning, a heroin addict has a greater physical need
for the drug than a cannabis user, and therefore deserves greater leniency.

Generally, the trend in Europe is to cure drug addicts of their addictions
through treatment.

Although there is more tolerance toward the use of drugs, there was a sharp
increase in arrests for drug-related crimes in nearly all EU countries in
the 1980s.

There are quite a few unresolved questions in the debate over drug
legalisation.

One of these is how the use of drugs can be permitted while continuing to
criminalise the trade. It is also feared that the legalisation of drug use
would attract more criminal elements onto the market. Portugal's change in
policy has caused concern in Finland, where it is feared that the
implementation of the Schengen Treaty will allow drugs to move more freely
throughout the zone.

Legalisation advocates speak about the rights of the individual: if no
crime is involved in the acquisition of a drug, and the user harms nobody
else, the state should not have any right to interfere. This is the way of
t hinking that is gaining ground in Canada where authorities feel that it
is not their business to interfere with the right of their citizens to grow
hemp.

The counter-argument is that the state has the responsibility to protect
its citizens from the consequences of their own actions, by mandating the
use of seat belts and motorcycle helmets. It has also been argued that the
state has the right to use the law to promote public health as a way of
saving on health care expenditure.

Proponents of drug legalisation also argue that by legalising drugs, the
state could better control the trade, use, and purity of the drugs, while
getting tax revenues.

Opponents counter this argument by saying that state-run drug sales would
not eliminate illegal drug dealers who would produce impure drugs at a
lower price.

Analogies have also been made between the present drug prohibition and the
attempts at alcohol prohibition of both the United States and Finland.
These laws made smugglers rich while failing to make the people sober.
Although drunkenness certainly was not eliminated, at least the number of
alcoholics and cases of cirrhosis of the liver declined during prohibition.