[ I'm looking at the suspect pliers on my knife ]
Posted on 09/19/2003 12:46:11 PM PDT by Wolfie
Swiss Debate Whether To Legalise Cannabis
The Swiss government, which already has one of the most liberal drug policies in the world, wants to decriminalise consumption of cannabis and put state provision of heroin to addicts on a permanent legal footing.
The ruling four-party coalition hopes the proposed revision of its drug law will close loopholes and establish a constitutional basis for Switzerland's four-pillar policy of repression, prevention, treatment, and harm reduction-including heroin prescription-which is widely credited with bringing down the mortality rate, crime, and deprivation associated with severe addiction.
Ahead of a scheduled parliamentary vote at the end of September, passions are running particularly high about the proposal to legalise consumption and-under certain circumstances- production and sale of cannabis.
An estimated 500 000 people-the Swiss population is 7 million-are occasional or regular consumers of cannabis, and "joints" are openly smoked in parks, outside schools, and on trains. The government argues that its police resources are too stretched to enforce outdated laws.
"For the sake of our own credibility we cannot allow that alcohol and tobacco, which kill 10000 people a year in Switzerland, are sold with all kinds of marketing wizardry, while consumption of cannabis, a less dangerous product, is a legal offence", said the Swiss Institute for Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, an independent research and counselling organisation.
Ahead of general elections scheduled for Oct 24, drug policy has become a political football. The right-wing Swiss People's Party is expected to make considerable gains, and this has led to a more conservative tone in the drug law debate-with a strong chance that the government package may be thrown out.
"The whole issue has become too emotional and politicised", said Felix Gutzwiller of Zurich University's Institute for Social and Preventive Medicines, and one of the pioneering forces behind Swiss drug policy.
Regardless of the outcome of the cannabis vote, Gutzwiller told The Lancet that this would not change Switzerland's four-pillar policy or undermine its injectable heroin prescription programme. This currently benefits about 1300 addicts-all of whom have longstanding, chronic heroin dependency, have made several unsuccessful therapy attempts, and have clear health and social problems.
Gutzwiller and other advocates say there is growing international recognition of the positive effect of the heroin provision, as shown by a spectacular fall in the number of overdose-related fatalities. Last year there were a reported 167 deaths, down 15·2% on 2002 and the lowest level for 16 years.
(In 1994, one of the peak years, 399 people died of drug abuse.)
"The programme is not a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing", Health Minister Pascal Couchepin told parliament earlier this year.
The cost is covered by Swiss health insurance to the tune of SwF1114·5 million (US$810·5 million) per year because-according to Couchepin- "heroin addiction is an illness and controlled provision is a therapy".
Critics disagree, with the UN International Narcotics Control Board saying that Switzerland and like-minded countries are "aiding and abetting drug abuse and possibly illicit drug trafficking, through drug-injection rooms and similar outlets."
Continuing the pioneering approach, the cities of Basel and Bern are due to begin a 3-month pilot project this autumn to prescribe the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug methylphenidate (Ritalin) to 60 cocaine addicts in recognition of the trend towards consumption of heroin and cocaine cocktails and the fact that standard heroin treatment is not effective for cocaine addicts.
The health ministry rejected a request by Zurich's social department to test controlled prescription of cocaine itself.
Gutzwiller also said he found cocaine prescription was premature and that the methylphenidate experiments were a more reasonable approach.
"Switzerland is a small country and so we can't go too fast", he said. "Our drug policy has to be based on evidence rather than adventure."
That's double the percentage in the U.S.
That's triple the intelligence of the U.S.........
Finally some common sense.
I'm sensing you don't like the FSP concept?
[ I'm looking at the suspect pliers on my knife ]
What about televisions? Microwave ovens? Athlete's foot? National parks?
Could you look those up for me? I'm sure those stats are just as relevant.
And they're considering doing the same for cocaine addicts. Reason? More than two-thirds of Swiss junkies use cocaine as well as heroin.
$$$CHA-CHING$$$
First, they're not doing it for any high-minded, intelligent, well-thought-out reason -- their police resources are "too stretched". Probably because they're spending close to a billion dollars (US) per year coddling heroin addicts.
Second, let's not be too quick with the kudos. There is a "strong chance that the government package may be thrown out."
At the local level (The Swiss have this crazy notion of letting the individual states, or cantons as their called, set their own policies without central government approval. Wacky, huh?). The current debate is on formalizing a national policy. Even if its rejected, it doesn't change thing in the cantons (There's that crazy de-centralization again!)
The High Peaks of Europe
At Growland, a two-story marijuana emporium in the up-scale shopping arcades of Bern, Switzerland, the product is remarkably inexpensive. Growland is one of fifteen stores here in the nation's capital that openly sell marijuana, and one of 250 nationwide. While it is technically not legal to deal pot in Switzerland, it is also not illegal. Store manager Peter Zysset has been in business for nine years and has only been visited by the cops once.
Whatever the Deadhead on your gift list wants, Growland sells, including ten sticky strains of marijuana -- all grown in Switzerland, according to Zysett. "The product is 100 percent Swiss, mostly grown outdoors," he says. "Already some former vineyards here have turned to growing pot."
The pragmatic Swiss clearly recognize the senselessness of banning a naturally occurring plant that has never killed anyone. In 1999, the Swiss Federal Commission for Drug Issues put out a report proposing a formal policy of cannabis decriminalization. And Department of Health Director Thomas Zeltner has said that "the consumption of cannabis can't be avoided through prohibition" and admitted that "cannabis does relatively little damage to health."
In 2001, the States Council ( Switzerland's version of the U.S. Senate ) unanimously passed a revision of the Narcotics Law, calling for cannabis possession to be decriminalized. The lower house of Switzerland's congress still must ratify the revision; in the meantime, many of the country's twenty-six states ( called cantons ) have effectively decriminalized weed for anyone over eighteen. Buyers are legally required to supply Swiss ID, but vendors only sporadically ask for it, and sometimes accept long-range train passes as proof of residency.
Switzerland's leniency has turned legendary ski towns like Verbier -- located about 100 miles south of Bern -- into magnets for the international burnout set. Verbier reports that in the last two years, the number of young North Americans streaming to its slopes has picked up by about five percent. Perhaps Steve Klassen, a Mammoth Lake, California, snowboarder who traveled to Verbier in April for a competition, says it best: "Verbier is the best venue in the world for extreme snowboarding. I go right from kind-bud Cali to Sativa Switzerland -- do not go to jail, do not pay $200."
I'd love it if you weren't going to pick on a Republican-leaning state like Wyoming or New Hampshire. You folks need to help take some Democrat senators out instead. Why aren't you picking on Vermont or South Dakota?
But since all most libertarians want is a place to buy and smoke dope without harassment, give Switzerland a try. Heck, it's a nice, clean, orderly country and, if it gets a little cold, at least you have some breathtaking scenary to look at.
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