EU NATIONS WILL RESIST CALLS FOR MORE TOLERANCE

THE most liberal of EU governments are resisting any attempt to blur the
borders between hard and soft drugs. Indeed Holland - famous for its coffee
shops permitting the sale and smoking of small quantities of cannabis -
argues that tolerance of soft drugs actually reduces misuse of harder drugs.

France and other more conservative states disagree and maintain an
across-the-board prohibition. But the effect is the same: the distinction
between hard and soft drugs is regarded as necessary.

Holland allows hundreds of coffee-shop owners to sell 5g of cannabis to each
customer. These drug cafes survive in a legal limbo. It is illegal to supply
a coffee shop with the soft drugs yet acceptable to sell them to customers.
The police simply turn their gaze away providing that no one under 18 is
served cannabis, that the coffee shops do not advertise or display drug
menus in the window, that neighbours are not annoyed and that hard drugs,
amphetamines and Ecstasy are not sold on the premises.

Dutch officials say the policy works. The easy access to soft drugs keeps
many young people out of immediate contact with hard-drug providers. The
result is that the number of registered hard-drug addicts in Holland is, at
0.16 per cent of the population, significantly below the EU average.
Certainly France and Britain have more addicts.

France, the US and indeed most international police organisations are not
convinced. While much cannabis is home-grown in Holland, most comes from
Morocco. Such deliveries become immensely more profitable if they include
other harder drugs, or at least a shipment of Ecstasy pills. Dutch dealers
have been supplying cocaine to the Dutch Antilles - causing great concern in
the United States since the Caribbean is regarded as a launching pad for
drug shipments to North America - and are a major source of Ecstasy in
Britain. The Dutch may thus be exporting their hard drug problem.

The border-free Europe enables dealers or consumers to shop in Holland. The
Dutch also tolerate possession of small amounts of heroin and cocaine - up
to 1g.

The proximity of Holland has encouraged Germany to start to liberalise its
drug laws. The new Social Democratic Government's drug expert, Christa
Nickels, is urging the legalisation of so-called "fixer rooms", in which
heroin addicts can inject themselves under supervision, using clean needles.
Some prisons have started to issue clean needles as of routine. In northern
Germany, courts have been dismissing charges against people carrying small
quantities of soft drugs for personal consumption. Gerhard Schroder, the
Chancellor, has said there would be no legalisation of cannabis. The
conventional wisdom that soft-drug use leads to hard drug use is still
shared by the Social Democrats despite the Dutch experience.