cannabisnews.com: Swiss Prescribe Heroin - Say Pot Should Be Illegal Swiss Prescribe Heroin - Say Pot Should Be Illegal Posted by CN Staff on October 05, 2003 at 18:41:18 PT By Clare Nullis, Associated Press Source: Associated Press Geneva – Philippe, 36, works for that abiding symbol of Swiss respectability – a bank. He also likes to relax with a joint of marijuana after work. Until very recently it looked as though his habit might soon cease to be a crime. But then Parliament killed government-backed legislation that would have decriminalized cannabis consumption. Last month's narrow 96-89 vote was ironic, because it leaves Switzerland – a pioneer in drug liberalization – on the "no" side in a gradual European trend toward softening the marijuana laws. "Bans on cannabis and alcohol have always proved a failure," said Pascal Couchepin, Switzerland's straitlaced health minister, arguing passionately but fruitlessly for passage of the reform. The Netherlands and Belgium have decriminalized pot consumption, Britain has softened the penalties and France is preparing to toughen fines but eliminate imprisonment. The Swiss vote provided comfort to those like Swedish Justice Minister Thomas Bodstroem who argue that Europe, in general, is far too permissive about soft drugs. "They solve the problem on paper but not in reality, and that's deeply regrettable," Bodstroem said in an interview with The Associated Press in Stockholm. Swedish law gives fines or prison sentences of up to six months for minor drugs offenses, while major crimes can get drug pushers up to 10 years in prison. And "most young people grow up in Sweden without having problems with drugs," Bodstroem argues. However, reformers said they regarded the Swiss vote as a mere blip, because many centrist lawmakers didn't want to appear soft on crime and drugs ahead of the Oct. 19 parliamentary elections in which the right is expected to make big gains. The reform lobby now hopes Parliament will pass legislation after election pressures subside. Although pot remains illegal, Swiss users are confident that police will continue to turn a blind eye, allowing them to puff in peace at home, in parks and even in the smoking cars of trains. Philippe, the bank employee, says the vote makes no difference to him in practice, although he wanted his surname withheld lest it harm his chances for promotion. He says he has smoked marijuana for half his life and believes it is no more harmful than alcohol, though his wife, Catherine, complains bitterly that pot makes him dreamy and forgetful. Despite last month's vote, Switzerland remains one of the most tolerant European countries toward drugs. It runs a heroin program that allows around 1,300 addicts to shoot up at approved centers with government-provided heroin, and the annual cost of about $8 million is covered by the state's health insurance system on the grounds that addiction is an illness rather than a crime. Although the nine-year-old program is regularly criticized by the U.N. International Narcotics Control Board, Swiss authorities point to a drop in drug-related offenses. Overdose-related fatalities fell to a 16-year low of 167 in 2002. The number of addicts has remained stable at around 30,000. "The Swiss leapfrogged the Dutch a few years ago when it came to embracing pragmatic drug policy reforms. They showed a leadership role in Europe and around the world," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, which favors decriminalization. "Inevitably, the process takes two steps forward and one step back. And my sense is that what happened in the Swiss Parliament was the one step back before the two steps forward," he said in a telephone interview. The government hoped the drug legislation would also give the heroin program a permanent legal footing. It argued that at least one in 15 people in the nation of 7 million are occasional or regular users of cannabis and that police can't cope with the volume. The upper house had already approved the legislation. The government's Youth Commission endorsed the new law, as did the independent Swiss Institute for Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, which said cannabis is less dangerous than "alcohol and tobacco, which kill 10,000 people a year in Switzerland (and) are sold with all kinds of marketing wizardry." But emotions still ran high enough to kill the legislation. "There are no harmless drugs, and young people need authority," declared Claude Ruey, a liberal lawmaker and sponsor of the "no-action motion" that put government reform plans on ice. Couchepin, the health minister, countered: "We shouldn't regard our young people as criminals, but rather the dealers who sell cannabis to minors." Elizabeth, who lives in a Swiss village and is mother of a 14-year-old pot smoker, agreed. Asking that her surname be withheld, she said that after she discovered her son James' marijuana plants growing among her gladioli, he offered her a deal: If he could keep them, he would work on improving his grades. She said she agreed rather than see him get tangled up with drug dealers offering harder drugs. Complete Title: Swiss Prescribe Heroin but Say Pot Should Stay Illegal Source: Associated Press Author: Clare Nullis, Associated PressPublished: October 05, 2003Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Related Articles & Web Sites:Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/Swiss Hemp Coordinationhttp://www.hanf-koordination.ch/Swiss Debate Whether To Legalise Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17358.shtmlSwiss Panel Set To Back Cannabis Legalization http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15529.shtmlSwiss Move To Decriminalisation of Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15507.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by WolfgangWylde on October 06, 2003 at 07:24:59 PT All this means... ...is that the Swiss have not adopted legalization as a national policy (yet!). At the local level it has already been de facto legalized. You can buy it over the counter in most large cities. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Virgil on October 06, 2003 at 02:03:00 PT That will not happen again 96 to 89 when the Senate voted 25 to 0 for legalization. The issue is freedom and protection of property and good name and prison and fines and seizures are the opposite of these personal rights. Forget the cannabis and remember your rights and throw those opposed to freedom out of office. Now some may say that I incorrectly used the word seizures instead of the upside down term used in court which would be forfeitures. Well, quit thinking upside down and realize they are seizing property. The whole idea of suing a nonhuman object in state v car or state v house is absurd. It is a way of feeding the system without a criminal conviction and requiring only a majority of jurors if you can afford to take it to trial once they seize your bank account. Criminal judges have a broad range of punishments that are already onerous and could take what needs to be taken. America has gone to hell and the sheep here do not baa- they go me, me, me. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 05, 2003 at 20:49:56 PT Examples of European Policy on Cannabis Use By The Associated Press October 5, 2003Some Examples of Cannabis Policies in Europe: ------= NETHERLANDS: Legislation dating back to 1976 decriminalized cannabis. Consumption and sale allowed in so-called coffee shops, which have annual sales around $3 billion. ------= BELGIUM: Decriminalized possession of cannabis in 2002. ------= BRITAIN: On Sept. 12, downgraded marijuana from Class B to Class C drug. Possession now carries maximum sentence of two years, but government says most offenders will get off with a warning. ------= FRANCE: Possession of soft drugs risks heavy fine and year in prison, but in practice cannabis use seldom prosecuted. Government may eliminate jail time but toughen fines for cannabis use. ------= NORDIC COUNTRIES: Possession and consumption of soft drugs illegal. ------= GERMANY: Cannabis consumption illegal, but possession of small quantities seldom prosecuted, although varies in German jurisdictions. ------= GREECE: Cannabis smokers face prison if caught, but enforcement lax. ------= ITALY: 1993 referendum decriminalized possession of "minimum daily dose'' of marijuana. ------= SPAIN: Possession of marijuana for personal use carries no sanctions. ------= PORTUGAL: Cannabis illegal, but under 2001 law those possessing small amounts no longer jailed and instead given mandatory counseling, and sometimes community service or small fine. ------= CROATIA: Last month, ended criminal prosecution for possessing marijuana for personal use. Sale remains punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Copyright: 2003 Associated Press [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on October 05, 2003 at 18:58:42 PT Deliberate transgenerational abuse Why is the generation in power doing this to marijuana users?To be deliberately abusive, to act out the cycle of abuse across generations as is traditional in human society, according to Judith Herrmann, author of Trauma and Recovery.This is all a form of parental abuse, and a lot of it is to cover up the after effects of parental abuse, for example, abused children who grow up and get hooked on drugs, which the abusive parent then blames for all of the problems of the child.War is a form of transgenerational abuse, according to Herrmann, who compared the effects of Vietnam on the generation of young men forced to serve there with the effects of rape and child sexual abuse on the same generation of women.Most traditional socially ingrained forms of rape are by older men on younger women, or younger men, and war is something that older men ask, beg, plead, cajole and force younger men to fight in and die in, for the political social and economic interests of the older men.Think of the Swiss defining their "problem" without considering the effect of prison on a human being.That is an abusive level of neglect. The absence of the imprisoned young person and the horrors suffered by that person in prison are absent not by accident, because the people who leave this information out are intelligent adults in positions of responsibility with plenty of ability to perceive this on their own, and they choose not to.It's abuse. Deliberate hurtful abuse, being excused by the grinding of a giant ponderous political wheel that everyone pretends they cannot control. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment