SWISS MAY EASE RULES ON THE SALE OF CANNABIS

BERN, Switzerland - Once a month, Didier, a clean-cut 37-year-old
government worker, stops by a little shop called Growland, just around
the corner from the city's elegant concert hall. Like 10 other shops
in Bern, Growland sells hemp products and is listed in telephone
directories under cannabis.

Didier, who declined to give his full name, said he was a regular
smoker and had come to stock up. So did a steady stream of other customers.

While the sale of cannabis for smoking at Growland and its competitors
is illegal, that law is not strongly enforced in this part of
Switzerland. Drug laws are applied more strictly in the
French-speaking western part of the country, where Didier lives. And
that is why he comes here, instead of buying at home in Neuchatel, an
hour away. "It's not a problem," he said. "Everybody knows you can
come to Bern and get it."

But even if laws remain unevenly enforced for now, more and more
Swiss, it seems, openly flout them and more police officers overlook
it. The scent of marijuana can be found on trains, in stations and in
restaurants, and cannabis is available for home delivery from Internet
sites.

In fact, a government survey in February found that as many as one in
four people in this nation of seven million have smoked marijuana.
Among the 90,000 estimated to smoke daily, nearly one-third are
teenagers. An additional 500,000 are thought to smoke
occasionally.

Faced with such numbers, officials announced in early March that they
were bowing to "social reality" and would take steps to remove the
penalties for consumption of marijuana and hashish, also made from
hemp, and lift some restrictions on their sale and production.

The move to liberalize its laws has put Switzerland at odds with its
neighbors, which have tougher laws regulating drug use. It has also
drawn anger from some United Nations agencies, which were already
critical of a Swiss program that provides needles and heroin to
certain hard-core addicts in an effort to reduce crime and the spread
of AIDS.

Swiss officials say they are setting a new course on soft drugs -
simply because the traditional one is not working. "Young people don't
understand anymore why it's forbidden when there are so many problems
with alcohol and cigarette smoking," said Dr. Martin Buchi, a
federal health department official.

Health officials are struggling to find ways to control the use of
marijuana among teenagers. The draft law would allow sale of small
amounts to Swiss residents at least 18 years old. And the shops would
not be able to advertise, though some already do.

The proposed changes - which are unlikely to take effect until 2003 -
have inevitably invited comparison with the Netherlands, where
marijuana "coffee shops" have become nearly a part of the national
identity. Switzerland's controlled opening of the cannabis market,
once approved by Parliament, could go further than the law in the
Netherlands, where cannabis consumption is only partly
decriminalized.

Critics say the changes will create a magnet for "drug tourists" in a
country where young people already flock to hike, ski and take part in
other adventure sports.

Dr. Buchi insists that the measure still discourages use of other
drugs like heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy. They will remain illegal,
although violations will not necessarily be prosecuted, officials say.
Although all details of the law have to be worked out, proponents -
including officials in Bern - say the police would be able to
concentrate on large-scale producers and traders.

Passage of the measure is far from sure. The right-wing Swiss People's
Party says it will fight any such change in a national referendum. In
1998, voters rejected a broader initiative to legalize all drug
consumption.

But Swiss federal authorities believe that liberalizing cannabis is
likely to attract widespread support because it "takes into account
the social reality," said Ruth Dreifuss, the former president and
social welfare minister - and because 53 percent of those polled in
February said they approved of decriminalizing soft drugs.

If it comes to a vote, the government can count on support from an
unlikely group: farmers. The government says hemp is being grown on
hundreds of acres - maybe thousands - around Switzerland.

Growing hemp is legal as long as the tough, fibrous plant is not sold
for production of narcotics (parts of the plant are used to make
fabric or cosmetics). The proposed law would legalize growing hemp for
smoking as long as it was sold in Switzerland.

Earlier this year, the federal drugs commission estimated that sales
for smoking could exceed $1 billion a year - something farmers, hard
pressed by declining subsidies and the impact of mad cow disease,
would welcome.