According to government statistics, about 500,000 people out of Switzerland's population of seven million occasionally or regularly use marijuana.

Advocates argue that alcohol and tobacco use pose a greater danger than marijuana. "For the sake of our own credibility we cannot allow that alcohol and tobacco, which kill 10,000 people a year in Switzerland, are sold with all kinds of marketing wizardry, while consumption of cannabis, a less dangerous product, is a legal offence," said the Swiss Institute for Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, an independent research and counseling organization, in a press statement.

The government is also considering a provision that would permanently legalize its injectable-heroin prescription program.

The nation's ruling four-party coalition said the changes would close loopholes in current laws and create a constitutional foundation for Switzerland's four-prong policy of drug repression, prevention, treatment, and harm reduction.

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