DROGUE: CACOPHONIE DANS L’UNION

Drugs: Cacophony in the European Union

On the day before the opening of the European Week for the Prevention of Drug Addiction, legislation varies from one country to the next. In France, the debate on decriminalisation of certain substances has never been able to be conducted calmly.

Even though the European Week for the Prevention of Drug Addiction begins Monday and will continue through the 22^nd of November, the member states of the European Union have still not succeeded in harmonising their legislation concerning illegal drugs.

The only exceptions concern the traffic in drugs and money laundering.

From 1999, the Treaty of Amsterdam will permit an effective collaboration between the various police forces, customs, and fiscal authorities of the countries of the European Union. But concerning the use of drugs, penal sanctions, and the sale of drugs, the law varies from one country to the next. Between the Dutch indulgence and the French intransigence, some of our neighbors have found a middle way.
(Marijuananews note: The "middle way" is to move timidly in the Dutch direction.)

Their aim, more or less long-term: to let legislation evolve calmly in a way considered by many as inadaptive.

In Belgium in the past few months, tolerance for cannabis smoking is now established. Consumption is not decriminalised, but repression is avoided. In Denmark, cannabis users are also tolerated.

A Controversial Experiment

Spain and Italy, more comprehensively and permissively, have simply decriminalised personal consumption of any and all drugs. In the U.K. and Ireland, consumption of drugs is likewise authorised, with the exception of opium.
(Marijuananews note: I am not quite sure what that means, but it is incorrect. The Irish in particular have their knickers in a knot over cannabis.)

Holland, the leader in this domain, has established a distinction between soft and hard drugs that began 22 years ago. Cannabis enthusiasts can buy between 5 and 30 grams in the "coffee-shops". (Marijuananews note: Actually, the limit is 5 grams per purshase, but that is aimed at the sellers not the buyers.)

As for hard drugs, they are tolerated with the condition that one has no more than 5 grams.

The Swiss, though they are not part of the European Union, will vote at the end of November for or against the legalisation of consumption and commerce in all the now-illegal drugs.

(Marijuananews note: The election will be on November 29^th, and the initiative is expected to fail. However, its opposite, which would have institutionalized prohibition, failed by 70% earlier this year, when a much closer vote was expected. Marijuananews will have a report on this as soon as the results are available Sunday or Monday.)

This small country has been a pioneer in the controlled distribution of heroin to addicts. This controversial experiment, certain aspects of which have attracted the attention of the French Secretry of Health, Bernard Kouchner, has also begun in Great Britain and Holland.

And finally, France remains with Portugal, Luxembourg, Greece, Finland and Sweden as one of the most repressive regimes concerning drugs.
(Marijuananews note: Actually, Sweden and France are in a class by themselves, but that is a rather long story.)

In France, the law of 1970, often severely criticised by specialists, forbids and punishes the use of drugs. The detractors of the law do not cease in their insistence that it is obsolete and should be revised, especially when one in three young people admit having tried hashish. [note: in French, "haschisch" is often used to indicate cannabis in whatever form.]

On Februry 3, 1995, the report of the Henrion Commission pleaded for a controlled legalisation of cannabis and recommended the modification of the law concerning hard drugs, all the while maintaining the principle of punishment: "In three years, the situation has not improved," Professor Henrion bitterly insists.

"Cannabis users are more and more numerous, and the use of ecstasy and synthetics has exploded. But the subject remains taboo."

And it is regrettable that the politicians confuse the decriminalisation of use, and the repression of traffic: "The facts remain only very dimly recognised by our contemporaries. But is is time to force some recognition of the situation. Rather than having a symbolic law which is not always applied, it would be more intelligent to design regulations for those over 16 yers old, while warning them of the risks they might encounter by the regular use of cannabis."

Stop Demonising Drugs

Last June, the report of Professer Roques upset Prohibitionist convictions when it revised downward the negative effects of cannabis and classed alcohol as a hard drug.
See
French Report Says Drinking Worse Than Cannabis
After Chirac And Prime Minister Reject Calls To Decriminalize

Along with the prime minister Lionel Jospin, Bernard Kouchner has always been against decriminalisation. Contrarily, he favored regulations which established a distinction between hard and soft drugs, taking into account alcohol, tobacco, and tranquilisers. It would not be surprising that the report just submitted to the prime minister by Nicole Maestracci, president of MILDT (Inter-minister project for the fight against drugs and addiction), in office since last June, continues with this idea. The former magistrate preaches a better objectivity toward different substances.

"If we desire some progress", she confides to her partners, "we have to change our practices. The law, subject to international treaties on drugs, cannot be radically changed, but we can perhaps make recommendations. To open the debate freed from taboo and prejudice would be a good start, as well as separating the issue as it concerns children and adults. We must stop demonising drugs, without at the same time under-estimating the problems presented by drugs. We should simply tell the truth to the young."