Latin America explores leniency on drug use

BY KATHERINE ELLISON
KnightRidder Newspapers

SAO PAULO, Brazil Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada
recently confided that he would decriminalize drugs if he could spare
himself the international controversy.

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso last year spoke of the need
for a national debate on decriminalizing marijuana.

Colombia's Supreme Court, three years ago, actually overturned a law
calling for prison terms for possession of small quantities of drugs
although the move was later partly reversed by thenPresident Cesar
Gaviria.

As Latin America's young democracies explore their new freedoms and
as a growing drugconsumption problem fills prisons and frustrates
attempts at control many of the region's leaders have begun debating
more permissive policies.

So far, the discussions have been halting and limited, yet they have worried
the U.S. government, which over the weekend took a strong stand against
drug legalization at a conference it sponsored for Latin American mayors.

``This is a struggle for the hearts and minds of our youth,'' U.S.
Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky warned.

The response at the Latin American Cities Against Drugs conference was
much less than had been hoped for, however: Only 45 mayors showed up.

The audience, filled out by antidrug civic activists, was treated to videos
of junkies shooting up in Zurich's Needle Park, which the Swiss
government closed in 1995, and expert testimony about the toll of
experiments in leniency in the United States and Europe.

``Liberalization gained ground much faster than anyone imagined,'' Swiss
psychologist Franziska Haller said. ``Legalizers have nearly reached their
goals. The socalled Swiss model is being exported around the world.''

In fact, some governments that have tried liberalization have recently
begun to backtrack.

The Netherlands, pressured by Germany and France and also worried about
increasing drugrelated crime at home, last year began drastically cutting
the number of coffee houses where it is legal to buy and smoke cannabis.

But while the Swiss have closed down Needle Park, Haller said officials
now supply heroin to 800 addicts, in rooms where they can shoot up with
help from a doctor or nurse. The country also has hemp restaurants, hemp
wine and even hemp sausages, she complained.

In the 1970s, a softening of penalties for marijuana use in the United States
led to a huge increase in consumption, with one out of 10 highschool
students stoned on marijuana every day by 1980, said Robert Peterson,
Michigan's former drug czar. A crackdown brought some improvement,
but it has been followed by a relapse in the past four years, he said.

Swedish activist Torgny Peterson, the director of European Cities Against
Drugs, characterized ``the new enemy'' in the fight against drugs as
``socalled intellectuals, socalled scientists'' and the Drug Policy
Foundation, an international proliberalization group he said had received
$6 million from American philanthropist George Soros.

The foundation has yet to make significant inroads in Latin America,
however, where advocates of softer penalties for ``hard'' drug use are
nowhere close to reaching majorities.

A poll commissioned by the U.S. Information Agency last year found that
only 5 to 6 percent of respondents in six countries surveyed favored
legalizing cocaine or heroin. (The number jumped to 11 percent in
Colombia.)

But it's a different story when it comes to marijuana, at least in Brazil. A
poll last year by the Brazilian news weekly Isto E found that nearly 42
percent said penalties should be eliminated for consumption of that drug.

``The marijuana cigarette is rolled with tranquillity on the beaches, in the
plazas and at parties,'' an accompanying article said, describing a new
tolerance that would have been ``unimaginable'' during the 1970s, when
Brazil was ruled by a military junta.

Also in Brazil, the Senate is now considering a bill that would eliminate
jail terms for drug consumption, motivated by concern that prison hardens
smalltime users into bigtime criminals.

``This is not legalization,'' said the bill's author, Sen. Jose Elias Murad.
``It's a middle ground. Right now, we have minimum sixmonth jail terms
for drug consumers. This approach would still carry penalties, but would
substitute fines and community work.''

The U.S. sponsorship of the weekend conference fits into a new emphasis
on international demand reduction in President Clinton's overall drug
strategy announced in February, according to assistant U.S. drug czar
Hoover Adger.

It may also be an effort to reassure Latin leaders that the United States isn't
giving up the drug fight.

In the USIA poll, 50 percent or more of those surveyed in Brazil, Chile,
Colombia and Mexico described the U.S. effort to deal with the drug
problem in their nations as ``fairly bad'' or ``very bad.''