CASE TESTS LEGALITY OF SWISS MARIJUANA

ZURICH, Oct 12 (Reuters) - In little shops springing up around Switzerland,
you can buy all the marijuana you want. You just aren't supposed to smoke it.

Drugs made from the hemp plant are illegal in Switzerland, as in most
countries, but a turn of phrase in Swiss lawbooks leaves open a loophole by
prohibiting trade in marijuana only if it is sold specifically as a narcotic.

Enterprising hemp retailers are testing the limits of the law by selling
marijuana as potpourri, or dried hemp packed in small cloth bags as an
herbal room scent and labelled "not for consumption".

But after three years of rapid growth, dozens of hemp shops could be facing
imminent closure as prosecutors in Zurich take one shop owner to court in a
test case. "I don't accept responsibility for misuse of the product," says
Bruno Hiltebrand, who is due in court on October 16 to face charges of
selling marijuana as a narcotic.

Hiltebrand, a 39-year-old pixie-like figure with spiky hair dyed bright
blond, sells 22 varieties of Swiss-grown hemp at between 20 and 100 Swiss
francs ($15-75) per sachet with names like "Juicy Fruit", "Lemon Skunk" and
"Organic Northern Light".

Hiltebrand echoes the standard defence that others in the new Swiss hemp
trade have been using since a few growers and their friends came up with
the idea in the mid-1990s.

The argument is simple. The potpourri sachets are legal, the shop owners
say, because they are sold for aroma therapy and expressly marked as not
for consumption as a drug.

What the buyer does at home with the contents is outside the vendor's
control, they say.

"If the police catch a Porsche driver going over the speed limit, they
don't punish the car salesman," Hiltebrand said. "If we get a customer who
says they want something to smoke, we tell them firmly that we don't have
anything to smoke, just aroma sachets."

PROSECUTORS REJECT VENDOR'S ARGUMENT This is a line that prosecutors in
Zurich, Switzerland's biggest city, are no longer willing to accept.

"After carefully reviewing the legal situation, the district prosecutor's
office believes the law is very clear," said Prosecutor Max Spoerri.
Consumption of marijuana is illegal and so is its sale for consumption, he
said. "I am convinced this case will be decisive regardless of which way
the verdict goes," Spoerri said.

If the court finds Hiltebrand guilty of trafficking in commercial narcotics
and the verdict is upheld on appeal, then prosecutors across Switzerland
will file similar charges aimed at shutting down other hemp shops, Spoerri
says. If the verdict is not guilty, then politicians will probably start
work quickly on rewording the law to seal the loophole, according to the
head of the Swiss Federal Health Agency.

"It is no secret that we have been watching the development of so many hemp
shops in Switzerland with some concern," said the agency's director Thomas
Zeltner. "Hemp as a narcotic is prohibited by Swiss law and the idea is
that it should stay prohibited."

OTHER PRODUCTS From a handful two or three years ago, the number of hemp
sachet shops has grown to around 160 and is growing by about 50 per year,
according to experts. Besides the aroma sachets, most hemp shops sell a
wide range of less controversial products from clothes made of hemp fibre
to hemp seed-flavoured ice cream. The fact that these shops were selling
marijuana from Swiss fields and greenhouses started making headlines in
1997. Zurich prosecutors opened their investigation after a critical story
in the conservative Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper. "The cause was various
complaints, for example from parents who were upset that their children
were spending their entire pocket money in these shops," Spoerri said.

"Even the police in (neighbouring) southern Germany complained that people
were coming back with marijuana from here and so did police in northern
Italy." Spoerri is seeking a 14-month suspended sentence for Hiltebrand, a
fine of 20,000 Swiss francs and a further 100,000 Swiss francs in alleged
illegal profits. The figure of 100,000 francs is Spoerri's estimate of the
net profit Hiltebrand's shop earned on hemp sachet sales of 195,000 francs
from the start of the investigation in August 1997 to April, when charges
were filed. Hiltebrand's shop "James Blunt" is typical of the genre, a
small and crowded storefront in a side street behind the city's central
train station. Its plate glass windows are painted with the names of
ailments allegedly treatable by inhaling the aroma of bagged hemp --
everything from sleeplessness and irritability to impotence and hair loss.

"I have loved hemp for a long, long time," says Hiltebrand. "That's why I
opened this business, because I saw that other people were doing it and not
having any legal problems."

Spoerri says it was probably a mistake to let the hemp sachet business
flourish for so long before intervening.

The Zurich local court is due to reach its verdict on or shortly after
Friday's one-day hearing.

But a final decision could be delayed by months or even years through
appeals all the way to the Swiss supreme court, leaving time for the active
community of Swiss hemp farmers to find other ways to dispose of their
harvest. "Experience teaches us that hemp growers have a very active
imagination when it comes to finding new ways to market their product,"
said Zeltner. ($11.318 Swiss Franc) REUTERS 0209 121098 GMT