Cannabis Becoming A 'Minor' Offense In EU, Study Says

February 17, 2005 - Lisbon, Portugal

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Lisbon, Portugal: A growing number of European nations are amending their laws to treat the possession of small quantities of cannabis and other drugs as "minor" offenses punishable by non-criminal sanctions, according to a report released this week by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon.

"In the EU Member States, notwithstanding different positions and attitudes, we can see a trend to conceive the illicit use of drugs as a relatively 'minor' offense, to which it is not adequate to apply 'sanctions involving deprivation of liberty,'" the report concludes.

Among EU nations, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, and Spain have laws forbidding the incarceration of defendants found to be in the possession of small amounts of cannabis or other drugs, absent aggravating circumstances. Several other countries - including Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - have enacted similar policies specific to cannabis possession.

However, the EMCDDA report states the implementation of administrative, non-criminal sanctions for minor drug offenders has not cut down on the number of individuals cited for minor drug law infractions - noting that over 50 percent of all reported drug offenses in the EU are for drug use and/or possession only, primarily for cannabis. (For example, 86 percent of all drug offenses in France in 2001 were for marijuana, the report found.) Nevertheless, authors reported, "Even though the use and possession of drugs for personal use are among the majority of drug related offenses reported to the judiciary, indeed the courts seem to prefer treatment [or] other social support measures and to a certain extent sanctions not involving deprivation of liberty ... when simple use of drugs is not accompanied by aggravating circumstances."

They concluded, "In these countries, prison sentences do not seem to be the most effective instrument to prevent (and punish) drug use."

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said that he found the EU's rejection of America's "Do Drugs-Do Time" drug policies encouraging, but added, "A policy that taxes and regulates cannabis in a manner similar to wine and other spirits is necessary if European nations are ever going to see a substantial reduction in the arrests and prosecutorial costs related to minor marijuana offenses."

For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of NORML. Full text of the report, entitled "Illicit Drug Use in the EU: Legislative Approaches," is available online at:
http://www.emcdda.eu.int/?nnodeid=7079