SWISS CABINET AIMS TO LEGALIZE POT SMOKING

BERNE (Reuters) - The Swiss cabinet proposed Monday making it legal to smoke
pot, but said other illicit drugs should remain outlawed for the time being.

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 in a statement that a period of public comment on the
amendments showed "basically broad support."

Swiss voters in 1998 rejected a proposal to legalize all drug consumption,
but the aroma of burning cannabis often wafts through the Alpine country's
parks and lakeside promenades.

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 designed to wean them from
their habit.

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 dubious honor of hosting 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 mecca for
Europe's drug addicts.