Pubdate: Wed, 27 Mar 2002
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: John Lichfield

JOSPIN ATTACKED FOR SAYING CANNABIS USE IS LESS DANGEROUS THAN DRINK-DRIVING

The French Prime Minister and presidential election front-runner, Lionel 
Jospin, incurred the fury of right-wing opponents yesterday by declaring 
that smoking a joint at home was less dangerous than drinking and driving.

Mr Jospin repeated his refusal to bow to pressure from some Socialist and 
Green allies for the decriminalisation of cannabis. He said relaxing the 
laws on soft drugs would "give the wrong signal to young people".

But the Socialist Prime Minister told the French news agency Agence France 
Presse, in an interview by fax, that virulent critics of cannabis should 
remember that both drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco could be more 
life-threatening.

"Smoking a joint at home is certainly less dangerous than drinking before 
you drive, both for yourself and for other people," he said. If he was 
elected President, he said, he would oppose any change in the French laws 
against cannabis possession, which are among the most draconian in Europe, 
but he said he would push for the laws to be enforced "in an intelligent way".

At a slack moment in the presidential election campaign, Mr Jospin's 
opponents pounced on his words with synthetic fury, attempting to portray 
him as a man who would be soft on drugs, or at least as someone who wanted 
to suck up to the pro-cannabis lobby.

The second charge - that Mr Jospin wanted to appeal to young people, 
without "inhaling" the pro-cannabis argument - may not be far wide of the 
mark. As some critics pointed out, Mr Jospin's comments could easily be 
reversed along the lines that it is more dangerous to drive after smoking a 
joint than to take a drink at home.

A series of opinion polls published yesterday and on Monday night suggest 
that, after stumbling in the past couple of weeks, Mr Jospin has regained 
the initiative in the campaign for the two-round election on 21 April and 5 
May.

After being widely criticised two weeks ago, including from within his own 
camp, for making personal attacks on his main opponent, President Jacques 
Chirac - who he described as "worn out" and "old" - Mr Jospin lost his 
narrow lead in the polls. Two of the three polls published this week 
suggest that the Prime Minister now leads the President once again in 
second-round voting intentions, by 52 to 48 per cent and 51 to 49 per cent. 
The third poll puts the two men at 50-50.
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