Europe Goes To Pot

Technically, it is still illegal, but so many cannabis users flout the law that governments opt to go easy

Stroll down Electric Avenue in Brixton, South London, and three guys might offer to sell you marijuana within five minutes. It's O.K.; the cops here won't arrest you for possessing a little. And it's no different on much of the Continent. Cedric, an 18-year-old Swiss student, smokes dope regularly with his friends on trains, in the streets and parks of Geneva, even during high school recess. "The teachers know about it but don't say anything," he says. In Marseilles two months ago, 20 crewmen on the aircraft carrier Foch had consumed cannabis so flagrantly on board that a military court had...

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