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: Richard Lake