SWISS CLEAR THE WAY FOR CANNABIS LEGALISATION

BERNE, March 9 (Reuters) - The Swiss government on Friday endorsed a
draft law that would legalise the consumption of marijuana and hashish
and allow a limited number of "dope shops."

The bill submitted to parliament seeks to bring Swiss law into line
with the reality that one in four people aged 15-24 regularly gets
high in the Alpine state, according to a poll commissioned last month
by the Swiss government.

"Decriminalising the consumption of cannabis and the acts leading up
to this takes account of social reality and unburdens police and the
courts," the government said in a statement.

The cabinet agreed in principle in October to legalise dope smoking.
It has now recommended that police be allowed to turn a blind eye to
people growing and trading small amounts of soft drugs, arguing that
this will make it easier to differentiate between small and
large-scale production and export of drugs.

"A certain number of shops could be tolerated as well as the growing
of hemp and the production of cannabis products, to the extent that
conditions laid down by government decree are fulfilled," it said.

The cabinet also proposed a flexible approach to prosecuting use of
other illegal drugs while still adhering to international treaties to
fight drug abuse.

Swiss voters in 1998 rejected a proposal to legalise all drug
consumption, possibly because Switzerland already has one of the most
liberal approaches in Europe to treating heroin addicts -- providing
free drugs and needles to junkies who do not respond to other forms of
addiction therapy.

Switzerland once had the dubious honour of hosting Europe's largest
open heroin scene in Zurich's "needle park," but city officials drove
it underground in the mid-1990s after the park became a mecca for
Europe's drug addicts.