CABINET PROPOSES MAKING MARIJUANA LEGAL TO CONSUME

BERNE, SWITZERLAND The Swiss Cabinet proposed Monday making it legal to
smoke marijuana but said other illicit drugs should remain so.

The government decided in principle to decriminalize the consumption of
cannabis products. It left open whether it would also eventually give a
green light to growing and selling marijuana and hashish.

It will now submit to parliament the proposed drug law revisions. The
government said that a period of public comment on the amendments showed
"broad support."

Swiss voters in 1998 rejected a proposal to legalize all drug consumption.

Nonetheless, Switzerland already has one of the most liberal approaches in
Europe toward treating heroin addicts, providing free drugs and needles to
some of those who do not respond to other forms of treatment.

A so-called four pillars approach to drugs aims at prevention, therapy,
damage limitation and arresting users and those involved in the trade.

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