Canton sticks to tougher line on drugs

While a number of Swiss cities are planning to become more liberal with regard to drug consumption, Zug is sticking to its current tougher approach.
 
In Geneva the city authorities are planning to introduce a 3-year test period whereby state-controlled cannabis will be allowed to be bought and consumed by registered adults in so-called "social clubs".
 
Similar projects are also under discussion in Basel, Bern, Winterthur and Zurich but this is not the case in Zug. The matter was raised in neighbouring Lucerne, where the Green Party proposed a pilot project in 2011 but this never came to anything. "Geneva decided to act as they were under more pressure to act with the open drug scene they have there", said Martin Merki, a member of Lucerne city council and head of social services there.
 
As for Zug, Andreas Bossard, who heads the Department of Social Affairs, the Environment and Public Safety on the city council, said that controlled trading in cannabis had never been a political issue here. Indeed if it were, the city would have to discuss the matter with the other municipalities and the canton first, and Beatrice Gross, the deputy general secretary of the Zug Cantonal Department of Health, also confirmed the issue of controlled sales of cannabis had not been raised.
 
As for the Zug Police, they were able to confirm that as many as 102 fines had been issued for contravention of regulations pertaining to the possession of cannabis between October and December in 2013 and that the number of drug offences in the canton had risen by more than 75% over the past four years. Indeed the number was up by 15% alone in 2013 when compared with the previous year.
 
Putting these figures into perspective, Marcel Schlatter, the spokesman of the Zug Police, said, "This has been caused to a certain extent by increased police checks," as he explained that the drugs market was one which was continually changing, did not respect cantonal boundaries and affected many parts of Switzerland. As previously reported, as many as 6.3 kilogrammes of marijuana were seized in Zug in 2013.
 
Beatrice Gross further explained that cannabis consumption was prevalent mainly in the 15-24 year age range but that only a minority of these went on to have serious problems. "Fortunately, centres have been set up where advice can be given to those affected," she said.
 
Merki said that, in Lucerne, the consumption of drugs in public was not so much a problem there and that cannabis was consumed mainly in private. "What concerns us most is when consumption becomes excessive, leading youngsters to go off the rails and drop out of whatever courses they are doing," he said.