Cocaine could soon become legal in European capital city
The capital of Switzerland is considering allowing the sale of cocaine for recreational use.
Cocaine is currently banned in the country – but parliament in Bern is supporting the idea after many criticised the complete bans as ‘ineffective’.
Spain, Italy and Portugal have already taken the steps to scrap prison sentences for possession of drugs – including cocaine – but this new proposal will take things to a new level.
Eva Chen, a member of the Bern council, said: ‘The war on drugs has failed, and we have to look at new ideas. Control and legislation can do more than mere repression.’
Thilo Beck, from the Arud Zentrum for Addiction Medicine, the largest centre for addiction medicine in Switzerland, said it was time for a policy around cocaine, which could solve a lot of issues.
Wealthy Switzerland has one of the highest levels of cocaine use in Europe, with Zurich, Basel and Geneva all featuring in the top 10 cities in Europe.
Swiss cities, including Bern, are also showing increasing usage, while prices of cocaine have halved in the last five years, according to Addiction Switzerland, a non-governmental organisation.
Some of UK’s top medical bodies also support drug decriminalisation – including Professor Angela Thomas.
When the Scottish Government endorsed drug decriminalisation in a major policy paper last week, the RCPE quickly came out in favour. So did the Faculty of Public Health.
And when the Royal Society for Public Health released a paper recommending the same move in 2018, the 500-year-old Royal College of Physicians of London declared their support for it too.
Professor Thomas said: ‘We need to encourage people who are addicted to drugs to come forward, and one of those ways of doing that is to not make them into criminals if they do that.
‘Allow them to present themselves as people who are addicted to drugs, as patients, so that they can actually receive the care they need to improve their health and wellbeing.’
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