EDINBURGH BIDS TO BE AMSTERDAM OF NORTH

If you want to take the "high" road to Scotland, head for Edinburgh, where
there is growing pressure for the city to approve cannabis cafes in an
attempt to create an "Amsterdam of the north".

Support for the move is rising as the traditionally conservative city
builds a reputation for street parties and liberal tolerance. It is also
planning a CCTV-protected "tolerance zone" for prostitutes.

Pete Irvine, one of Scottish tourism's most influential voices, has backed
calls for the cannabis cafes.

"I'm not proposing Scotland becomes a magnet for dopers," says Irvine,
awarded the CBE for directing celebrations to mark the royal opening of the
Scottish parliament. "But Amsterdam has made an industry out of a few cafes
that sell hash."

He suggests that a similar scheme in Edinburgh would show that Scotland was
"enlightened and different". The benefits, he believes, would outweigh the
problems.

"Amsterdam may be seedy, but that city's tourism is booming. Most people
who go there don't necessarily visit cannabis cafes, but they love the
flavour of that freedom."

Plans to test the city's tolerance for cannabis are already under way. The
publisher Kevin Williamson, who discovered Irvine Welsh, the author of
Trainspotting, a book and film about drugs, says he plans to open a
cannabis cafe early in the summer.

Williamson says there is widespread support for cannabis to be commercially
available in licensed premises and out of the hands of criminals.

Such arguments have already found favour: a newspaper poll revealed that
four out of five local people were in favour of the idea. It even has
support from some local officials.

The Liberal Democrat councillor Mike Pringle says: "I have always been in
favour of legalising cannabis. Edinburgh is far more forward-looking than
other cities. I wouldn't use the cafes myself, but I know a lot of people
who would."

Critics insist Edinburgh will suffer if it inhales the drug cafe culture.
Tory councillor Daphne Sleigh says it will take the city downmarket.
"Amsterdam is sleazy and vile, so why are we trying to emulate it?" she says.

The city has, however, already taken steps along the road to being an
international party venue and the police force has started a drive to
recruit gays, lesbians and ethnic minorities. Some senior officers are
open-minded on how to deal with cannabis.

As deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders police, Tom Wood was
dubbed Scotland's "rock'n'roll copper" when he successfully policed
Edinburgh's biggest party in the past 1,000 years: the millennium Hogmanay.

"There must be a debate on the law because it is 30 years old and society
has moved on," says Wood.

"I don't have a view on the decriminalisation of cannabis. But we cannot
simply go on adopting the same tactics and reactions to the problems of drugs."

Like David Blunkett, the home secretary, Wood is watching the progress of a
policing scheme in Brixton, south London, which effectively decriminalises
possession of cannabis. The initiative is thought to have saved police
2,000 hours of form-filling after arrests, allowing them to concentrate on
gun crime and cracking down on hard drugs.

As a result some observers believe Blunkett is likely to reclassify
cannabis as a class C drug, making small-scale possession a non- arrestable
offence. It could open the way for cannabis cafes.

In Scotland the row turns as much on what kind of city Edinburgh really is.
Professor John McLeod, principal of the Free Church college, says
Edinburgh's image as a Calvinistic city is misplaced.

"Historically it has always been progressive. It prides itself on being
culturally and intellectually avant-garde," he says. "There is also a
practical argument. There is only so much the police can do. Some crimes
cannot be eradicated."