Source: Times, The (UK) Contact: http://www.the-times.co.uk/ Pubdate: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 Author: Susan Bell BODY SHOP'S HEMP PRODUCTS BLOW UP A STORM IN FRANCE THE Body Shop may be prosecuted for promoting drug use after French police raided a branch of the ecologically friendly retail group in Aix-en-Provence. They seized stocks of hand lotion, lip conditioner and body oil from the company's new hemp product range, claiming that they encouraged the use of cannabis. The Body Shop products are made with industrial-grade hemp seed oil extracted from the hemp plant, which is part of the cannabis family. The oil does contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the compound that provides the "high" from marijuana, but only in negligible quantities. "You'd have to smoke a hemp joint the size of a telephone pole to get the least buzz and you'd die from carbon monoxide first," Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop, said yesterday. She expressed "amazement" at the action of the gendarmes, who also seized all promotional material on the products during the raid on Wednesday. The seized items were returned, but a report was submitted to the public prosecutor in Aix-en-Provence. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said yesterday that any legal action would probably focus on the packaging rather than the products. Posters advertising the range show the hemp leaf. A Body Shop spokesman denied that the range encouraged drug use and said the company's aim was to distance industrial hemp from marijuana by educating people on the ecological benefits of cultivating hemp and the uses to which it could be put. There are more than 25,000 known uses for hemp, including fuel, textiles, building materials and fabrics. The hemp seed oil used to make the Body Shop products comes from France, which Ms Roddick described as "being in the forefront of the hemp revolution". The Body Shop launched the hemp products in its 22 shops in France on Monday. The range has already enjoyed huge success in Britain and America. In Britain, it accounted for 5 per cent of total sales in April, a month after it was introduced. - --- Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson