MORE than 100 French artists and intellectuals have signed a petition admitting to taking soft drugs and offering themselves for prosecution, WRITES JOHN LICHFIELD in Paris. The intention is partly to embarrass the government of Lionel Jospin, but mostly to embarrass the judiciary, which has brought a number of legal cases against high-profile campaigners for the legalisation of cannabis and other drugs. The signatories of the "petition of 111" include the 1960s Franco-German political activist, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the film director Patrice Chereau, the fashion designer and president of Paris Opera, Pierre Berge, and the actress Marina Vlady. The petitioners state: "At one moment or other of my life, I have consumed stupefying drugs. I know that in admitting publicly that I am a drug user, I can be prosecuted. This is a risk I am ready to take." [continues 148 words]
Chris Clay provided this link to addresses: http://www.lemonde.fr/adresses/index.html and Peter Webster wrote: It is not entirely clear, but I would send lte's to both of the following: courrier@lemonde.fr this the most likely for lte's lemonde@lemonde.fr prob. a general address [end]
THE Movement for Controlled Legalisation (MLC), which advocates the sale of narcotics under state control, has just asked the French health minister, Bernard Kouchner, to authorise the import of 10kg of cannabis for therapeutic use. The jurists of the MLC base their arguments on articles of the public health code that give the health authorities the right to authorise the import and use of narcotics for medical or scientific research. The Swiss company Valchanvre has offered to supply, free, 10kg of its Walliser Queen variety of cannabis for the MLC's experiment. [continues 300 words]
Normally Le Monde gives little space to sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. But the austere French daily has outraged some readers by publishing a lengthy interview with the perpetual rock star Johnny Hallyday in which he casually admits to taking cocaine. John Lichfield reports. The controversy falls into three parts. There are the diehard Le Monde readers who believe the newspaper should never mention a "chanteur yeye" like Johnny Hallyday at all. There are more broad-minded readers who were, none the less, astonished to find the newspaper permitting him to make a defence of cocaine and its artistic contribution to rock music. [continues 737 words]
PARIS—The French government will approve the experimental medical use of marijuana in hospitals next year as a first tentative step toward relaxing the country's Draconian drug laws. Discussions also are to be held early next year on the abolition of prison sentences for possession of small quantities of marijuana and other 'soft' drugs - perhaps eventually leading to decriminalization of cannabis use, government officials say. Although the government has ruled out any formal change in drug laws in the near future, it is contemplating administrative changes to soften the harsh French rules. [continues 380 words]
PARIS, Dec 10 (Reuters) A group advocating the decriminalisation [sic] of marijuana said on Wednesday it had sent a handrolled marijuana cigarette to every French MP, along with letters urging them to ease France's tough drug laws. ``This legislation, the most repressive in Europe, has done nothing to halt the massive spread of drugs, nor has it slowed the appetite of a certain number of our fellow citizens for illegal substances,'' the Parisbased Collective for Information and Res earch on Cannabis wrote. [continues 79 words]
From John Lichfield in Paris The French health minister, Bernard Kouchner, is in favour of the partial legalisation of cannabis. He is the third member of the present French government in recent months to express a view of this kind. Mr Kouchner said last week that the medicinal prescription of cannabis should "obviously" be legalised. The Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, has already said that he favours decriminalisation. The environment minister, Dominique Voynet, has called for outright legalisation of the drug. The issue will be one of several drugrelated questions to be studied in depth at a conference at the health ministry in Paris next Friday and Saturday. The conference brings together politicians, civil servants, doctors and drugs experts, who will make cautious recommendations to Mr Kouchner. [continues 356 words]
Exguru, Convicted Of Killing In Absentia, Free Amid Doubts About American Justice By Johnthor Dahlburg, Los Angeles Times PARIS Since 1993, the writer with the saltandpepper goatee lived in a converted windmill in a village of southern France with his strawberryblond Swedish wife. Last June, before sunrise, heavily armed police moved in and arrested him as he lay naked in bed. He claimed it was a case of mistaken identity. But fingerprints showed he was Ira Einhom, a former hippie and New Age guru from Philadelphia convicted on firstdegree murder charges in the death of his former girlfriend and a man on the run for almost 17 years. [continues 568 words]
The largest part of the operation, by about 2,250 officers, took place in northern France where police searched more than 9,000 vehicles and checked the identities of over 16,000 people. A total of 37 kilos (81 lbs) of cannabis was seized in spot inspections in France with smaller quantities of other drugs also being discovered, police said. The operation was the third of its kind this year in an attempt to discourage small dealers travelling between the three states. [end]
``All drugs are dangerous,'' Guigou told RTL radio, answering with a flat ``no'' when asked if the government which came to power in June might relax narcotics laws. ``Prohibition must remain a point of reference. As justice minister and as a mother, I consider that's a necessity,'' she said. Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin admitted during the campaign that he had twice smoked hashish and suggested he would decriminalise use of soft drugs if elected. ``Legalising sounds like justifying, penalising is absurd. I think we have to find a line somewhere between the two,'' he said in April. [continues 224 words]
TROYES, France, Sept 23 (Reuter) President Jacques Chirac reiterated on Wednesday that France would maintain controls along its northern borders to stop drug runners despite the Schengen openborder pact between some European Union states. He said during a visit to Troyes in northeastern France that continuing drugtrafficking to and from the Netherlands made the controls necessary. Chirac also sniped at French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet, who recently admitted to having smoked marijuana, as a leftright controversy raged over her suggestion that soft drugs should be legalised. [continues 471 words]
By Susannah Herbert, The Daily Telegraph PARIS French Environment Minister Dominque Voynet expressed support yesterday for the legalization of cannabis, a drug she admitted having smoked. "Speaking as a doctor and as a politician, I am still in favour of legalization," Ms. Voynet said. "The occasional consumption of cannabis has no impact on health and social bonds. "I am more worried by the number of French people who need sleeping pills than by the number of people who admit smoking a joint," she told the magazine Charlie Hebdo. [continues 136 words]
Reuters PARISThe French opposition Socialist leader, Lionel Jospin, saying he had twice smoked hashish, told a television interviewer Sunday that he wanted to decriminalize the use of the drug if his party won the parliamentary election scheduled for May 25 and June 1. "I did it once in the United States, with a young woman, and I think once in France," Mr. Jospin said in the interview with Canal Plus television about a 1995 admission that he had smoked hashish. He said his party would decriminalize the drug if it emerged victorious from the voting. "Legalizing sounds like justifying," he said. "Penalizing is absurd. I think we have to find a line somewhere between the two." France forbids the recreational use of drugs and has frequently clashed with the Netherlands, where the possession of small amounts of soft drugs is tolerated. [end]
PARIS, April 27 (Reuter) French opposition Socialist leader Lionel Jospin, saying he had twice smoked hashish in his life, told a television interviewer on Sunday he wanted to decriminalise use of the drug if his party wins a snap parliamentary election. ``I did it once in the United States, with a young woman, and I think once in France,'' Jospin said in the interview with Canal Plus television about a 1995 admission that he had smoked hashish. He said his party would decriminalise the drug if it emerged victorious from the twostage polling on May 25 and June 1. ``Legalising sounds like justifying, penalising is absurd. I think we have to find a line somewhere between the two,'' he said. France now forbids any use of narcotics and has frequently clashed with the Netherlands, where small amounts of soft drugs are tolerated. [end]
A Buddhist funeral for poet Allen Ginsberg drew several hundred people here Monday to honor one of the leading writers of the 1950s antiestablishment Beat Generation. Ginsberg died Saturday of liver cancer. He was 70. A coffin containing Ginsberg's body was draped with yellow, red and white silk embroidered with a sun, the emblem of the Shambala community with whom the poet made frequent retreats. Ginsberg had converted Buddhism years ago and began each day with meditation. The celebritystudded crowd of mourners, including singer Patti Smith and Peter Orlovsky, Ginsberg's companion for four decades, took off their shoes and knelt before two altars, then assumed the lotus position on floor cushions. [continues 136 words]
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Inside France
