Pubdate: Feb 19, 1998 Source: The Scotsman Contact: Author: Jennifer Trueland - Health Correspondent DUTCH RESEARCH BACKS CASE FOR LEGALISED USE Legalising cannabis would make people more likely to try it, but does not mean they would become regular users, according to research from Holland. In 1976 the Dutch legalised the possession of small amounts of cannabis and the results have been reviled and praised. Lee Brown, head of the US Office for National Drug Control Policy was unimpressed. "I've visited their parks, the children walk around like zombies," he said. But Paul Hagar of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union said: "Hard drug use - heroin and cocaine - has declined substantially." According to the data presented in today's New Scientist there was no immediate increase in cannabis use after 1976 in Holland. Trends in use have generally been the same as in other countries. The percentage who regularly use either hard drugs or cannabis is lower in the Netherlands than in many other European countries, including Britain. And the number of hard drug addicts in the Netherlands has not increased for a decade. Dirk Korf, of the Institute of Criminology at Amsterdam University, estimates that 3 per cent of Dutch people had used cannabis at least once in 1970, rising to 12 per cent in 1991. Most of the increase is because people who used it in 1970 are still around. In Amsterdam 55 per cent of the people who say they have tried it do not become regular drug users. Decriminilisation was intended to keep people off harder drugs and the Netherlands has fewer addicts per capita than Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France or Britain. Dr Dick Dafters, of Glasgow University's department of psychology, has studied the effects of drugs including morphine and ecstasy. In his view cannabis should be decriminilised. "Physiologically cannabis is less harmful than tobacco and alcohol - I don't think there has been a single case of someone dying from cannabis and the amount needed to overdose must be greater than a person's body weight. "People have a vision of everyone lying around smoking dope rather than getting on with their lives but I don't think this would be the case. The people who would do that would be the type without much in their lives in any case." Dr Dafters said widespread use of cannabis was unlikely to affect crime statistics. "If anything, cannabis has a calming effect and does not encourage violence, unlike alcohol," he said. Decriminilising cannabis would mean people who wanted to use the drug would not have to go to drug dealers. Psychologically they would not have felt thay had crossed the line to criminal behaviour and so might be less likely to go on to take harder drugs. Linda Hendry, Scottish spokeswoman for the Legalise Cannabis Campaign, said: "At the moment teachers have to tell children that cannabis is as bad as other drugs because it is illegal. Teenagers might then be lured into a false sense of security and think they will come to no harm with harder drugs because cannabis is all right." But Ann Allen, convenor of the Church of Scotland board of social responsibility, said: "Legalising cannabis could lead to people being encouraged to try it who would not normally."