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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Belgium: The cannabis smokescreen Jon Eldridge Expatica.com Friday 04 Jul 2003 Cannabis use among young people in Belgium is rising. But when does it become a problem? Jon Eldridge reports on the country's drug laws. When the famously ganja-loving rappers Cypress Hill exhorted the crowd at this year's Rock Werchter to wave their reefers in the air, the police barely stirred. And this was not because of the heat or the hypnotic beats. To have raised a cannabis-clutching hand would not have signalled an admission to a criminal offence& unless the hand belonged to a "problematic" user or someone under the age of 18. The first condition of Belgium's new drug law that people can use cannabis as long as it is not for "problematic" use is open to interpretation; the second that people can carry up to three grams is becoming more important as new figures show cannabis use among young people is on the increase. A recent study by the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Fondation Rodin of more than 2,000 people in Belgium between the ages of 10 and 18 finds that 45 percent of respondents say they had already tried cannabis. That is an increase over Rapport National Belge figures for three years ago of 39 percent (and a significant increase over 22 percent for the same year cited by the Communaute Francaise.) The scale of use is also greater. The ULB-Rodin survey shows that 17.2 percent of 18 year olds regularly smoke cannabis. Psychiatrist Laurent Servais, who works for the youth protection organisation, IPPJ, says: "this figure may not seem enormous, but the intensity and frequency of cannabis use in this group is alarming." The survey, Youth and Well-being, concentrated on a possible link between cigarette smoking and cannabis use and suggested that the common ciggie could be a "point of entry" to other dependencies. Although, as might be expected, the study did record a correlation between smoking and moving on to other drugs, researchers have been circumspect about claiming a causal link. Professor Rene Patesson of the Centre de Psychosociologie de l'Opinion at Universite Libre said the links are very complex and difficult to establish. In fact, researchers suggest a series of factors, including family problems and difficulties at school, which led young people to progress from cigarettes to soft and hard drugs. There is a certainly high incidence of educational problems among cannabis users, but again researchers say it is difficult to disentangle cause from effect. Still, authorities must be troubled by the survey's finding that cannabis is four times more likely to be found in schools that permit cigarette smoking. M=E9lanie Vandeleene of La Teignouse, which helps young people with drug problems, said the organisation sees more and more youths with cannabis problems. Why are more young people trying joints? "The relaxation of the law on cannabis is a cause but only one of many. We work in communes in the country, and there isn't much for young people to do here," Vandeleene said. Relaxing the law Laws that came into force in May of this year make it legal to possess up to 3 grams of cannabis for personal use, provided that this is not "problematic". The Service Public Federal Justice defines problematic as that which creates dependence, causes physical or psychological harm or takes place in a jail, school or social centre where minors might be present. (Since rock festivals are actually included in this category it shouldn't have been OK to wave reefers at Cypress Hill!) Problematic use among young people, the survey finds, includes the need to smoke a joint in order to sleep. Almost a third of respondents who admitted using cannabis say they have smoked cannabis for this reason. That half the young people surveyed don't consider cannabis a drug also has implications for legislators. Some politicians in countries with a sterner approach to cannabis argue that tolerating its use sends the wrong message. When questioned about other drugs, respondents became more guarded, but the results show that users of drugs such as ecstasy had first tried cannabis and cigarettes. The study follows the discovery in May of 130 kilograms of cocaine stashed in hollowed-out bananas entering the port of Antwerp. Far from being "mellow yellow" about the finding, federal police commissioner Charles De Winter, nicknamed "monsieur drogue" by the Belgian press, said the drug was "being more and more used and becoming more and more available." According to the commissioner, the drug is =E0 la mode among 30- to 35-year-olds, an observation that raises the question of whether the survey merely reflects a fashion among young people? The answer to this question probably doesn't depend on whether Cypress Hill endorses the drug's use, but it could point a way to tempering its appeal.
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