T
The420Guy
Guest
SAO PAULO, Brazil, A popular Brazilian television host who was
fired for admitting she occasionally smoked marijuana was unrepentant on
Tuesday, saying she was not a criminal as her dismissal reignited national
debate on pot laws.
Sonia Francine, Brazil's top female soccer commentator and a former MTV
presenter, was fired late Monday by publicly funded TV Cultura, which said
it could not allow one of its employees to promote illegal acts. Francine,
popularly known as Soninha, hosted a talk show geared at adolescents.
She and three other Brazilians appeared on the cover of news magazine Epoca
this weekend and billboard advertisements across the country beside the
headline ''I Smoke Marijuana.'' The cover story highlighted the
recreational use of pot among professionals and Brazilians' sometimes
conservative attitudes toward its use.
''I am not a pothead, I am the same person I was before,'' the 34-year-old
mother of three said on Tuesday on a talk show.
''But the fact that a person consumes a substance should not turn that
person into a criminal, even if that substance is bad for them or is bad
for their health,'' said Francine, who says she smokes very little, usually
at parties or friends' homes.
Marijuana use is illegal in Brazil although experts say it is becoming more
common, especially among adolescents.
According to an estimate by the Brazilian government cited in a U.N. report
on world drug use, 7.7 percent of Brazilians use cannabis, compared to 9
percent in the United Kingdom and 8.9 percent in the United States.
Other magazines have also recently run stories on marijuana use, including
one in the weekly Veja entitled ''My dad smokes grass with me,'' and
another in which a Sao Paulo city official called for debate on the
medicinal use of cannabis.
Meanwhile, as Francine's plight became the focus of debate on daytime talk
shows and spot polls, experts said one problem in dealing with marijuana
use was the country's strict 1976 law that adheres to a stricter U.S. model
instead of a more liberal stance like the Netherlands or Portugal, which
have decriminalized personal use.
''Brazil is moving in the opposite direction of the modern approaches,''
said Walter Maierovitch, Brazil's first drug czar who now heads a crime
research center in Sao Paulo. ``What predominates is prohibition and bad
information.''
Newshawk: puff_tuff
Pubdate: Tue, 20 Nov 2001
Source: MSNBC (US Web)
Copyright: 2001 MSNBC
Contact: letters@msnbc.com
Website: MSNBC — Breaking News, Top Stories, & Show Clips
Details: Overload Warning
fired for admitting she occasionally smoked marijuana was unrepentant on
Tuesday, saying she was not a criminal as her dismissal reignited national
debate on pot laws.
Sonia Francine, Brazil's top female soccer commentator and a former MTV
presenter, was fired late Monday by publicly funded TV Cultura, which said
it could not allow one of its employees to promote illegal acts. Francine,
popularly known as Soninha, hosted a talk show geared at adolescents.
She and three other Brazilians appeared on the cover of news magazine Epoca
this weekend and billboard advertisements across the country beside the
headline ''I Smoke Marijuana.'' The cover story highlighted the
recreational use of pot among professionals and Brazilians' sometimes
conservative attitudes toward its use.
''I am not a pothead, I am the same person I was before,'' the 34-year-old
mother of three said on Tuesday on a talk show.
''But the fact that a person consumes a substance should not turn that
person into a criminal, even if that substance is bad for them or is bad
for their health,'' said Francine, who says she smokes very little, usually
at parties or friends' homes.
Marijuana use is illegal in Brazil although experts say it is becoming more
common, especially among adolescents.
According to an estimate by the Brazilian government cited in a U.N. report
on world drug use, 7.7 percent of Brazilians use cannabis, compared to 9
percent in the United Kingdom and 8.9 percent in the United States.
Other magazines have also recently run stories on marijuana use, including
one in the weekly Veja entitled ''My dad smokes grass with me,'' and
another in which a Sao Paulo city official called for debate on the
medicinal use of cannabis.
Meanwhile, as Francine's plight became the focus of debate on daytime talk
shows and spot polls, experts said one problem in dealing with marijuana
use was the country's strict 1976 law that adheres to a stricter U.S. model
instead of a more liberal stance like the Netherlands or Portugal, which
have decriminalized personal use.
''Brazil is moving in the opposite direction of the modern approaches,''
said Walter Maierovitch, Brazil's first drug czar who now heads a crime
research center in Sao Paulo. ``What predominates is prohibition and bad
information.''
Newshawk: puff_tuff
Pubdate: Tue, 20 Nov 2001
Source: MSNBC (US Web)
Copyright: 2001 MSNBC
Contact: letters@msnbc.com
Website: MSNBC — Breaking News, Top Stories, & Show Clips
Details: Overload Warning
