cannabisnews.com: Swiss Dope Fans Vow To Fight on for Right To Smoke Swiss Dope Fans Vow To Fight on for Right To Smoke Posted by CN Staff on June 16, 2004 at 16:24:00 PT By Reuters Source: Reuters Zurich, Switzerland -- Swiss campaigners vowed on Tuesday to fight on for the right to smoke marijuana or hashish despite a fourth failure in as many years to persuade parliament to decriminalize the personal cultivation and use of cannabis. Parliament rejected the motion Monday. The youth wing of Switzerland's Young Liberal Democratic Party said Tuesday it would soon propose a fresh initiative to allow a regulated decriminalization. Christa Markwalder Baer, a Liberal Democrat member of parliament, said the initiative would be similar to the defeated proposal, which would have tolerated smokers buying cannabis from a certain number of registered outlets. These so-called "hemp" shops -- where cannabis masquerades as herbal tea or bath salts -- currently run the risk of being closed down by police but are widely accepted by the Swiss. "It is about creating a prudential, regulatory framework," Markwalder Baer said. "The problem today is that because the product is prohibited, one can not run any effective prevention campaigns." Known as law-abiding and conservative, many Swiss enjoy an occasional joint and it is not unusual to see suit-clad businessmen beside city lakes engulfed in a fog of dope smoke. With an estimated half a million regular or occasional cannabis users -- many of whom smoke publicly in parks, clubs or on ski lifts -- in a nation of 7.3 million people, campaigners say it is time for the law to catch up with reality. "The reason the government isn't addressing this issue is cowardice," said Catherine Weber, head of a left-wing activist group, the Democratic Lawyers of Switzerland. "It is simply reality for a lot of people and it must be accepted." The Young Liberal Democrats hope to launch the campaign for signatories to their initiative on July 20. Memories are still fresh in Switzerland of a liberal heroin policy in the 1990s which led to the nightmare of "Needle Park" in central Zurich, prompting concern that a Dutch-style acceptance of cannabis could encourage use of harder drugs. Commercial growing and dealing cannabis would have remained illegal under Monday's defeated law. Source: Reuters Published: June 16, 2004Copyright: 2004 Reuters Related Articles & Web Site:Swiss Hemp Coordinationhttp://www.hanf-koordination.ch/Cannabis Debate Fails To Fire Up Young Swiss http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18996.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 #8 posted by WolfgangWylde on June 17, 2004 at 14:15:20 PT Found this little tidbit... Big Brother is watching you: Swiss smokers copped by pilotless planeGENEVA (AFP) Jun 13, 2004 Zealous Swiss soldiers called the police when the infra-red camera of a pilotless spy aircraft they were testing showed an image of two civilians smoking cannabis, a newspaper said on Sunday, adding that the incident had prompted a protest in the country's parliament. The newspaper Le Matin Dimanche said police turned out with screaming sirens and arrested the smokers after they were tipped off to the incident near the central city of Lucerne late last month. The army had been giving a trial run to one of its seven drones, pilotless planes equipped with cameras and normally used to spy on enemy troops, when they observed the scene, the paper said. The incident caused a Socialist member of parliament to make a protest statement, noting that citizens were not supposed to be spied on from the air without their knowledge. In reply, Defence Minister Samuel Schmid said that the drones "are not made to spy on citizens", and did not have sufficiently precise cameras to identify an individual. However he also defended the soldiers' action. "When one is serving one's country, one is also a citizen, and a citizen has a duty to denounce whatever seems abnormal," he told parliament, according to the report. The paper said the soldiers had called the police after observing "a car and two individuals, apparently very agitated." Although smoking cannabis is illegal in Switzerland, a survey published in 2000 found that six out of 10 people aged between 20 and 24 admitted to having partaken at least once. The newspaper said the Swiss army had seven drones that were acquired from Israel in 1995. The craft fly at altitudes of between 1,000 and 3,000 feet (300 and 900 metres). [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by WolfgangWylde on June 17, 2004 at 02:25:06 PT No surprise, really. Swiss politicians... have the best of both worlds as it is. No costly and damaging War on Marijuana, but at the same time they get to look good to the U.S. and their Prohibitionist neighbors. I've debated drug warriors on the net recently who see this a huge victory for "their" side. When I point out that cannabis is sold over the counter, and smoked openly in public in Switzerland, they insist that because its "illegal", their side is winning. The politicians won't move on this until they're threatened with losing their cushy jobs over the issue. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by rchandar on June 16, 2004 at 21:37:32 PT: swiss I don't know what the real reason is. Italy and France could be a big part of it, but most of it is probably due to the fact that politicans are gutless b#%stards who can't admit prohibition doesn't work.--rchandar [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on June 16, 2004 at 20:58:28 PT BGreen Thank you. The article answers my questions. I wish him the very best. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by BGreen on June 16, 2004 at 20:51:02 PT Cannabis Culture Story About Nol Van Schaik Thought you'd like to know.The Reverend Bud Green Dutch pot hero imprisoned [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Virgil on June 16, 2004 at 18:56:09 PT Case dismissed Turmel has 2 new messages. This is message 1241 in its entirety- JCT: Bruce Ryan tells me that a friend named Ed Martin who had been busted for possessiono 1.5 grams, about 2 joints, had his hearing for disclosure yesterday, Tuesday June 15, and told the Crown that he was going to move to quash the charges like Bruce Ryan did on the same grounds that the Terry Parker case killed the law and Parliament hadn't brought the new prohibition back yet.The Crown immediately withdrew the charges.Another one bites the dust.And I do the same thing tomorrow and I'm in the right twenty-six months.Now if you are a real wonk on the cannabis issue, you have really got to read the second message- http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MedPot/message/1242Tomorrow is the day Turmel finds out the if the laws are as dead as he says they are. I say there will be a big crowd at Rainbow Bridge come Friday. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Virgil on June 16, 2004 at 18:40:23 PT Principal wishes for Free Cannabis http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=1947381&nav=1ugFNyP4The principal had two joints at the airport, but they were not his. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Virgil on June 16, 2004 at 17:55:12 PT AARP supports drug re-importation This is about AARP support for drug re-importation- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&ncid=584&e=14&u=/nm/20040615/pl_nm/congress_drugs_dc .The issue of drug imports is emerging as one of the top domestic policy concerns this year. Mozilla Firefox .9 browser release- [ Post Comment ] Post Comment