Vienna - The Vienna stadium holds 60,000 people. If you filled it four times over, you would have the number of those who have tried cannabis in Vienna. "To punish 15% of the population is a senseless, Sisyphus task for police and the justice department," said the Vienna drug policy coordinator, Peter Hacker; "Such consumption should not lead to prosecution under the drug laws. "That is the policy that we have followed since the beginning of the 90s."

When Vienna was confronted with a growing heroin scene, due to the booming market in drugs from east Europe, they had to make crucial changes in their drug policy, he said.

In the fight against the hard drug trade, therapy and preventive measures were given precedence over prosecution. Since then, the number of drug related mortalities continues to fall. This year is only half last year’s figure.

"When it is known that prosecution does not follow immediately and automatically, the people come forward more freely and it’s easier to get them into therapy," opined Hacker. "In so far as Cannabis is concerned," he said, "we have pursued a reasonable, practical policy. All we lack now is the legal basis for it."

According to reports, 500,000 Vienna residents have consumed cannabis. 21% of young people have tried it.

Increasingly, such figures and facts are giving rise to discussions which Josef Ackerl hopes will lead to a Europe wide leagalisation of cannabis.