SWISS TO VOTE ON LEGALIZING DRUGS

ZURICH (Reuters)-Swiss voters Sunday will decide on a sweeping proposal to
legalise narcotics, a measure that proponents say will knock out the drugs
mafia but critics declare will isolate Switzerland as a haven for junkies.

The plan would make Switzerland the only country in the world where anyone
aged 18 or older could buy the narcotics of their choice, from marijuana to
heroin, from state-run outlets or pharmacies after consultation.

The proposal is widely expected to fail, as do most policy ideas put up by
citizens for a national referendum under the Swiss system of direct
democracy.

But supporters hope that a sizeable minority in favor could push Swiss
legislators to further relax drugs policy that is already among the most
liberal in Europe.

``We have to get over 35 percent for a clear signal that people want
liberalization, to give politicians a reason to act, especially in the area
of cannabis,'' said Francois Reusser, co-organizer of the committee that
launched the plan.

Backers say drugs prohibition has failed to stop the supply, instead
creating a criminal-run black market with no health standards and high
prices that force addicts into stealing or prostitution to support their
habits.

Legalizing drugs would shut down the drugs mafia, make it easier to prevent
or treat addiction and end the criminalization of individuals for their
private habits, they argue.

Launched by a committee of drugs experts, doctors and lawyers, the
referendum proposal is backed by leftist politicians and youth chapters of
two of three conservative parties in Switzerland's center-right coalition
government.

``Based on my long-suffering experience as a judge, I must acknowledge that
the treatment of narcotics delinquency by the criminal justice system has
obviously been a gigantic and very expensive waste of effort,'' Basle judge
and professor Peter Albrecht wrote in the national paper Neue Zuercher
Zeitung.

``The existing law is really counterproductive because it hinders the
protection of public health and creates an enormous amount of procurement
crime'' for buying drugs, he said in an opinion piece in favor of the
legalization referendum.

Opponents, including Interior Minister Ruth Dreifuss and the government,
call the legalization bid an extreme measure that would fuel addiction and
isolate Switzerland from international police and justice cooperation.

``Switzerland would become a storage and transit country for drug dealers,''
said Valentin Roschacher, chief investigator at the Federal Office of Police
Affairs.

Junkies from around Europe would flock to Switzerland and the Berne
government would be forced to withdraw from a number of international
accords on narcotics suppression, he said.

Dreifuss and other critics of legalization say Switzerland is already doing
well with a policy of providing heroin for severe addicts and expanding
addiction treatment programs while also combating the illegal drugs trade
and financing anti-drugs campaigns.

Switzerland started to make heroin available under medical supervision in
1995. It also expanded therapy opportunities and at the same time cracked
down on open-air drugs markets in Zurich and other cities.

Defenders of the mixed policy point out that drugs deaths have fallen to 241
last year from 419 in 1992 while the number of hard drugs addicts has
remained stable.

Checked-by: Don Beck