CANNABIS SHOULD BE LEGAL, BELGIAN CABINET DECIDES

Belgium's cabinet has approved plans to legalise the use of cannabis, while
resisting calls for a drugs regime as liberal as that of its neighbour, the
Netherlands.

After a hot debate, Belgium's coalition government agreed on a compromise
making it legal to grow or smoke cannabis, but not to buy or sell it.

Smoking openly in the Grand Place of Brussels or other public places will
still leave Belgians open to possible prosecution under laws to prevent
"social nuisances," commonly used for those who urinate flagrantly in
public (doing so discreetly is not considered a crime).

The curious Belgian compromise over the weed has some logic, even for a
country which says it wants to reduce drug use. Surveys shows that as many
as 40 per cent of the country's 10 million population has experience of
cannabis and, with the Dutch border, an hour away for most of the
population, some liberalisation seems inevitable. At present, possession of
any cannabis is technically punishable by a prison sentence.

Paul Geerts, a spokesman for the Consumer Affairs and Health Ministry, said
that plans to allow Dutch-style cafes, where cannabis is legally available,
had been judged to "go too far". For people who want to obtain it there
were two alternatives, he said: "You can grow it yourself or most people in
Belgium know where you can buy it in the Netherlands".

There will, he said, be no formal limit placed on the amount that people
can possess for their own use because to do so "implies that there is not a
problem; we want to help people avoid drugs". The new regulations treat
cannabis on a par with alcohol and nicotine in terms of the health risks it
poses.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said a royal decree would be issued
instructing prosecutors not to pursue people for possession. "This is a
policy that is being followed in many of the countries in the European
Union," he said. "We are not penalising individual users of cannabis, but
we are concentrating on production, distribution or problematic use."

Some other EU members take a tougher line on drugs, however. France, in
particular, has attacked Dutch laws for promoting drug trafficking.

The Health Minister, Magda Alvoet, said the new measure was a recognition
that the judiciary should no longer intervene in the personal use of cannabis.