Brusel - Dutch coffee shops have become a symbol of the liberal attitude to soft drugs.
As for the tolerance of young Europeans towards smoking marijuana, it is the Czech Republic, though, that should be marked the soft-drug-tolerance paradise.
Young Czechs between 14 and 24 years of age hold the most liberal views of smoking "gandja", or tráva, as it is called in Czech.
While on average three quarters of young Europeans are pro-marijuana ban or at least its sale control, it is only 38 percent of Czechs that do not like to see marijuana widely available. Surprisingly, it is much less than in the Netherlands.
The liberal approach to drugs in the Czech Republic is linked to the low risk majority of Czechs ascribe to drugs. Four of ten Europeans think smoking marijuana can be highly harmful, it is mere 17 percent of Czechs that regard marijuana as dangerous.
These are the latest findings of a survey conducted by Eurobarometer in May.
Ecstasy? Totally cool..
All told, 12,000 respondents consider cocaine and heroin the most dangerous drugs, while ecstasy is supposed to be a milder drug.
Again, it was Czechs who proved to be the most tolerant towards this "dancing" drug. While 98 percent of French young people would ban ecstasy, one fifth of Czechs would delegalize the drug.
The amphetamine-like drugs, ecstasy among them, can cause dehydration, irregular heartbeat and liver damage. There have been deaths associated with exctasy in past. But Czechs seem to be ignorant of these facts. Over 80 percent of young Europeans consider a high risk to take this "mood elevator", meanwhile it is only 37 percent of Czechs that hold the same view.
Try it only once
"Under communism drugs became a symbol of freedom and after 1989 the general attitude was not repressive," Kamil Kalina of Center for Addictology, a specialized department of the First Medical Faculty in Prague, explains one of the reasons why Czechs appear to be so liberal towards drugs.
"But a high degree of tolerance does not mean a high abuse of drugs," points out Kalina. Young Czechs, says Kalina, follow the motto: "I´ll try it and then leave it."
