ALL OVER EUROPE, CANNABIS IS NOW ON THE AGENDA

Amsterdam's cannabis festival, the UK 'Change The Drugs Law' tour and
support from the European Civil Liberties Committee

AMSTERDAM plays host to the annual cannabis festival next week, and
Independent on Sunday readers are invited to take part. There are still
places available on a special package that provides two nights hotel
accommodation, all travel and entrance to various seminars and gigs for
just £110. Adam Peters of the Oxfordbased International Study of
Ecological Agriculture Netherlands group, said: "We have held a number of
places open for IoS readers. This is a unique educational adventure. We
have lined up a range of special speakers and performers that include the
authors Kevin Williamson, Howard Marks, Brian Barritt and Fraser Clark."

Coaches will pick up travellers at various points around the UK but for an
extra £100 readers can forego the ferry for a return air trip. For more
information, call 01865 396556.

Elsewhere in Europe, drug law reformers are getting organised. To the
surprise of campaigners, the European allparty Civil Liberties Committee
has just voted in favour of decriminalising cannabis.

The proposal by the Dutch MEP Hedy d'Ancona calls for the harmonisation of
member states' laws on drugs, to allow regional authorities the
independence to pursue their own policies. The initiative, which was drawn
up within the European Parliament, passed its first hurdle by the narrow
majority of just six votes.

Ms d'Ancona, a former health minister, said: "The consumption of cannabis
must be officially decriminalised so as to take account of the situation in
most member states." She recommends that ministers should authorise member
states or regions to develop a system where the sale of cannabis to adults
may be regulated. The proposals form part of a ten point plan. Among them
is the central aim to overturn the 1961, 1971 and 1988 UN conventions on
drugs which binds members to a policy of maintaining the prohibition. The
d'Ancona report calls for the Council at the General Assembly on Drugs, to
be held next June, to give states the authority to decriminalise drugs.

It also stresses the need to bring national laws into line with the way
they are applied in practice. This recognises that in some countries a de
facto tolerance of cannabis for personal consumption is already in place.

"Most national governments seem in practice to be less strict than official
policy guidelines would have us believe," d'Ancona said. But she is
confident that a European policy is slowly but surely taking shape.

In the UK, the "Change The Drugs Laws" tour leaves London this week to hold
conferences in Liverpool, Edinburgh and Dublin. The tour is supported by
Howard Marks and Irvine Welsh and coincides with the publication of Kevin
Williamson's book, Drugs and the Party Line. They will also be present
tomorrow in Liverpool at the Bluecoat Arts Centre, School Lane (tel 0151
709 5297). On Tuesday the roadshow moves on to the Assembly Rooms,
Edinburgh George Street, (tel 0131 220 4349). On Saturday they will be in
Dublin at the Temple Bar Music Theatre, (tel 00 353 1 6709202)

BBC Radio Scotland is holding a debate on the decriminalisation of cannabis
tonight at 10.30pm. Guests will include Willie McKelvey, the former Labour
MP, George Kilday, secretary of Strathclyde police federation and Dr Stefan
Janacavic, from Wirral health authority.