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The420Guy
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BERNE, March 9 (Reuters) - The Swiss government on Friday endorsed a draft
law that would legalise the consumption of marijuana and hashish and allow a
limited number of "dope shops."
The bill submitted to parliament seeks to bring Swiss law into line with the
reality that one in four people aged 15-24 regularly gets high in the Alpine
state, according to a poll commissioned last month by the Swiss government.
"Decriminalising the consumption of cannabis and the acts leading up to this
takes account of social reality and unburdens police and the courts," the
government said in a statement.
The cabinet agreed in principle in October to legalise dope smoking. It has
now recommended that police be allowed to turn a blind eye to people growing
and trading small amounts of soft drugs, arguing that this will make it
easier to differentiate between small and large-scale production and export
of drugs.
"A certain number of shops could be tolerated as well as the growing of hemp
and the production of cannabis products, to the extent that conditions laid
down by government decree are fulfilled," it said.
The cabinet also proposed a flexible approach to prosecuting use of other
illegal drugs while still adhering to international treaties to fight drug
abuse.
Swiss voters in 1998 rejected a proposal to legalise all drug consumption,
possibly because Switzerland already has one of the most liberal approaches
in Europe to treating heroin addicts -- providing free drugs and needles to
junkies who do not respond to other forms of addiction therapy.
Switzerland once had the dubious honour of hosting Europe's largest open
heroin scene in Zurich's "needle park," but city officials drove it
underground in the mid-1990s after the park became a mecca for Europe's drug
addicts.
law that would legalise the consumption of marijuana and hashish and allow a
limited number of "dope shops."
The bill submitted to parliament seeks to bring Swiss law into line with the
reality that one in four people aged 15-24 regularly gets high in the Alpine
state, according to a poll commissioned last month by the Swiss government.
"Decriminalising the consumption of cannabis and the acts leading up to this
takes account of social reality and unburdens police and the courts," the
government said in a statement.
The cabinet agreed in principle in October to legalise dope smoking. It has
now recommended that police be allowed to turn a blind eye to people growing
and trading small amounts of soft drugs, arguing that this will make it
easier to differentiate between small and large-scale production and export
of drugs.
"A certain number of shops could be tolerated as well as the growing of hemp
and the production of cannabis products, to the extent that conditions laid
down by government decree are fulfilled," it said.
The cabinet also proposed a flexible approach to prosecuting use of other
illegal drugs while still adhering to international treaties to fight drug
abuse.
Swiss voters in 1998 rejected a proposal to legalise all drug consumption,
possibly because Switzerland already has one of the most liberal approaches
in Europe to treating heroin addicts -- providing free drugs and needles to
junkies who do not respond to other forms of addiction therapy.
Switzerland once had the dubious honour of hosting Europe's largest open
heroin scene in Zurich's "needle park," but city officials drove it
underground in the mid-1990s after the park became a mecca for Europe's drug
addicts.