CANADA BEHIND EUROPE ON DRUG LEGALIZATION

Medial Marijuana Law Called Only A Small Step Forward

Despite Ottawa's recent decision to allow the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes, Canada is still well behind several European countries
when it comes to reforming its drug laws.

The Canadian law, which came into effect yesterday, allows severely ill
patients with a doctor's approval to apply to Health Canada to grow and use
marijuana.

Compared with the United States, which has taken a hard line in its war
against drugs, the move by the federal government looks almost radical. But
compared with Portugal, which has decriminalized the use of previously
banned drugs - from cannabis to crack cocaine - Canada's move doesn't seem
so revolutionary.

"America has spent billions on enforcement, but it has got nowhere,"
Vitalino Canas, Portugal's top official for drug policy, was quoted as
saying earlier this month by the Guardian newspaper in Britain. "We view
drug users as people who need help and care."

The new Portuguese law, which came into effect July 1, does not mean drugs
are legal. However, drug users in Portugal no longer have to fear prison if
they get caught.

In Switzerland, officials announced in March they would take steps to
remove penalties for all consumption of hashish and marijuana.

The move came after a Swiss government survey in February found that as
many as one in four people in the country of seven million have tried pot.

The Swiss have long given heroin to addicts for health reasons, such as
reducing the risk of using shared needles and HIV infection.

Not everyone in Europe is getting on the drug-reform bandwagon. In Sweden,
for instance, consumption or possession of cannabis is punishable by up to
six months in jail.

But for the most part, Sweden is the exception rather than the rule in
European attitudes toward drugs. And that is why drug reform advocates in
Canada are looking across the Atlantic with keen interest.

"We are not as repressive as Sweden," said Eugene Oscapella, a lawyer and
founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy.

"But we are far behind countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium."

The Ottawa-based foundation, which advocates reforming Canada's drug laws,
points out that Canada was not the first country to introduce regulations
for the medical use of marijuana.

"Belgium beat us to the punch," Oscapella said in a phone interview.

On July 19, the Belgian government announced it had approved the use of
cannabis for medical purposes on a trial basis.

Under the new law, cannabis can only be administered in Belgian hospitals
as part of research that has been approved by an ethics committee.

The announcement followed the Belgian government's pledge in January that
it would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.