LEGAL CANNABIS WOULD CUT CRIME, BONINO TELLS EU

by Toby Helm, EU Correspondent, in Brussels

EMMA BONINO, the outspoken Italian commissioner for consumer

affairs in Brussels' faced controversy yesterday after saying the

sale of soft drugs should be legalised in the European Union.

Mrs Bonino, known for her efforts to enforce drastic cuts in the

size of EU fishing fleets, said such reforms would reduce

drug-related crime across Europe.

She also praised the liberal drugs laws in Holland and said the

use of hard drugs such as heroin should be allowed under strict

medical supervision, rather than prohibited altogether.

In an interview in the French newspaper, Le Parisien she said it

was time member states undertook a re-think on soft drugs.

"If the trade became official in a form to be defined - and the

member states have a lot of experience in matters of regulation -

then that would deprive organised crime of an important source of

revenues.

"And if the drugs became available for a reasonable price, that

would diminish the violence used by drug addicts in order to fund

their habit. "

Mrs Bonino, a member of the Italian Radical Party which promotes

free market policies, said the drugs regime in Holland had

produced "excellent results".

I here is less criminality and a small amount of delinquency. The

drug addicts are registered and far fewer people are infected

with Aids than elswhere in Europe."

Mrs Bonino argues that by legalising drugs the black market is

wiped out and the streets of notorious drug capitals such as

Amsterdam become cleared of dealers.

But today many believe Amsterdam is more seedy and packed with

more dealers than ever.

Mrs Bonino told The Daily Telegraph: "I believe that cannabis

should be able to be sold and used freely as it is in Holland.

"As for hard drugs I am against prohibition. It has been tried

for 20 years and has failed.

"Drugs such as heroin should be allowed under strict medical

supervision under strict rules. Then you would have more control

over the whole chain - from production to usage."

Her comments angered fellow commissioners in Brussels, where the

European Commission has no direct control over drugs policy in

member states. "Euro-sceptics might rightly ask why on earth she

is getting into this debate," said one commission source.

Her remarks will also have infuriated the French government,

which has refused to implement fully the Schengen Accord on open

borders because of concern about the amount of drugs coming into

France from Holland.

France is putting measures to combat the problem of drugs in

Europe -which it regards as the result in large part of the Dutch

regime- at the top of its agenda in the Maastricht Two talks on

the reform of European institutions.

Although the sale of soft drugs is not actually legal in Holland,

police in the country turn a blind eye to people smoking cannabis

or taking other soft drugs, including ecstasy.

In Britain, people can receive up to five years for possessing

cannabis, seven years for taking hard drugs and life imprisonment

for trafficking.

In Holland, even trafficking in soft drugs is not a matter which

would bother the police.

The Dutch say the liberal rules on soft drugs allow them to

concentrate more on combating the consumption and sale of hard

drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Last night, a Dutch government

spokesman welcomed Mrs Bonino's comments. "These remarks are in

line with what we have been saying for several years. We believe

it is necessary to concentrate on hard drugs and that our

policies have succeeded."

Mrs Bonino's comments followed a report published earlier this

week by the European Union's drugs monitoring centre, the

European Drugs Observatory, which concluded that there was

"little relationship" between tough anti-drugs policies and

reduction in offences.

The report showed that about one per cent of adults in the

European Union had taken heroin and that around 500,000 Europeans

were heroin addicts.

But there was nothing to show the problem was lessened by

stricter anti-drugs legislation such as that in Britain.

Mrs Bonino argued that although it was now clear that the

"prohibitionists" had lost the argument over drugs, nobody had

the courage to open the debate on legalisation.

She said the Maastricht Treaty gave the European Commission only

a very limited role in questions of public health

"It is up to the member states to take their responsibilities."

*****

DUTCH DEFEND LAID-BACK DRUGS LINE

by ToNy Helm, EU Correspondent

THE decriminalisation of soft drugs means that young people

experimenting with them do not come into contact with the

criminal underworld in which hard drugs are sold, the Dutch

government claims.

The authorities describe their policy brought in under the 1976

Opium Act as the "separation of markets" for hard and soft

drugs.

The result, they insist, has been that only very few people who

try soft drugs are lured into taking hard drugs. Neither, they

maintain, has there been an increase in the use of soft drugs as

a result.

A recent policy statement from the Dutch government says that the

aim of its policy "is the prevention and containment of possible

risks to users, their immediate environment and society as a

whole".

On soft drugs it states: "The possession of a quantity of soft

drugs for personal use - up to a maximum of 30 grammes - is

regarded as a summary offence [a minor offence] which will not

usually lead to prosecution. This will remain unchanged.

"In practice, prosecution will not be initiated in cases in which

soft drugs are sold for personal use which occurs in the cities

in what are known as coffee shops provided certain strict

conditions are met.

"This allows young people who might wish to experiment with soft

drugs to be protected from the criminal underworld in which the

trade in hard drugs occurs (separating the markets)."

The possession of more than 30 grammes of soft drugs and the

possession of hard drugs -regardless of the quantity - are

regarded as serious offences, as are the import export and

production of hard or soft drugs.

"Evidence of the success of the separation of markets is to be

found in the fact that only a very few of the young people in the

Netherlands who use soft drugs take to using hard drugs," the

policy document says. "The decriminalisation of the possession of

soft drugs has not led to a rise their use."

The Dutch do admit, however, that their policies have led to some

serious problems.

Above all, the decriminalisation of soft drugs has caused a

massive increase in cannabis production, which has driven down

prices to such a level that "the Netherlands is thus in danger of

becoming a production and export centre for soft drugs".

The policy statement says: "This would be both unacceptable and

intolerable from the viewpoint of public health and would rightly

give rise to strong criticism from other countries."

It is the lure of soft drugs from Holland which so worries the

French.

As a result, the government has now decided to give the highest

priority to prosecuting these involved in `'large-scale

production".

Soon some small experiments will begin in Holland involving the

supply of heroin under strict medical supervision to seriously

ill addicts "whose physical state and social situation are beyond

hope".