THE INDEPENDENT POLITICS OF THE CANTONS

In Switzerland, the consumption of a prohibited drug is an offense
punishable by penal sanctions (article 19a of the law on narcotics).
But risk of apprehension and arrest is not the same in Geneva and
Zurich. Each applies the law according its priorities and its
political choices in the struggle against drugs.

In 1994, a survey of the Federal Office of Statistics (OFS) already
showed important disparities concerning the type of offense
(consumption or traffic), or the type of drug ("hard drug" or hashish).

These disparities persist today.

In Geneva, the observed policies are rather liberal.

If the police still interrogate consumers of prohibited drugs, the
courts have a tendency to overlook this type of pursuit.

In Zurich, repression is conducted in a more determined way. It is
true that the memory of the Platzspitz and the Letten (the two big
"drug scenes" of Switzerland) remains fresh in everybody's mind. When
arrested, a consumer is led before the district attorney of Zurich who
prefers to pursue the penal procedure to mark the occasion.

Several thousand of such cases are judged every year. By contrast,
some cantons confess their tolerance for individual consumption. In
Zoug, a sanction is only pursued in particularly serious or recidivist
cases.

In Bern, the problem has been recently approached by adopting a new
law reinforcing the power of policemen and permitting them to arrest a
consumer of drugs without having to pursue the case judicially.

Among all these differences, one constant feature seems to be
clear.

While punishing the consumption of drug, the objective aimed by
cantons is above all to repress the "open-air" markets, to prevent the
emergence of new places of gathering.

And all agree on this point: public consumption must not become a
habit.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry