T
The420Guy
Guest
In what would be one of the more aberrant recent decisions of the French
justice system, two pro-pot activists risk spending a year in jail for
wearing T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of a cannabis leaf.
A zealous public prosecutor this week demanded 12-month prison terms for
Jean-Pierre Galland, president of the Cannabis Information and Research
Collective, and Laurence Duffy, head of the campaign group's Lyon branch,
for contravening article 630 of the French public health regulations.
The law bans French citizens from "portraying in a favourable light and
promoting or inciting the consumption of any product classed as a banned
substance". The pair are also accused of selling CDs bearing the deeply
suspect title of "A little piece of hemp music".
This is, of course, an absurdity, something that was pointed out by some 40
people, including philosophers, Green MPs, actors, film-makers and
representatives of human rights and Aids groups, who signed an open letter
to the prime minister, Lionel Jospin, saying as much.
Nor is it the first time that the collective, a nationwide association of
committed weed smokers, has run into trouble. The brave Mr Galland has so
far incurred fines totalling £10,000 for his activities, the most memorable
of which was probably to mail all 577 members of the French parliament a
neatly rolled joint along with a letter demanding the relaxation of France's
drugs laws, among the harshest in Europe.
"Nurtured and cosseted by enthusiasts, this cannabis, raised under the sweet
skies of France, has been generously donated by growers to give to you,"
read the letter poetically. The MPs would now be in the same position as the
many thousands of their fellow citizens who had illegally rolled and shared
a joint, it continued: "A law that is broken daily by hundreds of thousands
of people is a bad law. It is time for the state to stop treating cannabis
enthusiasts like delinquents."
To be fair, over the past couple of years, Mr Jospin's Socialist-led
government has begun edging round to the collective's point of view.
Officially, the use, possession and sale of marijuana is still banned,
despite estimates that some 7m of the country's 60m people have tried the
drug at least once and about 2m are regular users.
But after a number of high-profile admissions by ministers, France's
traditionally draconian approach - which theoretically makes the import of
few grammes of Dutch weed punishable by up to 30 years in prison - could no
longer sensibly be maintained.
The Green environment minister, Dominique Voynet, caused uproar among
conservative MPs when she admitted having smoked cannabis and favouring
decriminalisation. "I am more worried by the number of French people who
need sleeping pills than by the number of people who confess to having
smoked a joint," she said.
The Socialist employment (and formerly justice) minister, Elizabeth Guigou,
has also expressed the opinion that smoking the occasional joint was "no
tragedy" and the health minister Bernard Kouchner is known to support the
medical use of cannabis on prescription. Even Mr Jospin, when pressed, will
admit to having smoked some hashish in the past.
The conservative opposition, headed by the president, Jacques Chirac, has
always been hostile to any relaxation. Mr Chirac has repeatedly accused the
Netherlands in particular of encouraging trafficking by tolerating soft
drugs consumption. "Consuming soft drugs inevitably leads to hard drugs," he
said. "All serious people are aware of this."
Nonetheless, encouraged in part by similar moves in several other European
countries, France's inter-ministerial drugs commission last year recommended
a rather softer approach and the justice minister has written to all the
country's judges urging them to avoid prison sentences for offences related
to cannabis consumption.
All of which, as the collective's supporters point out in their letter,
makes the demand of the Lyon public prosecutor even more absurd. "It means,"
they said in their letter to Mr Jospin, "that in France, the birthplace of
human rights, in the year 2001, you can no longer be jailed for consuming
cannabis but you can be for 'portraying its consumption in a favourable
light'."
The PM has yet to reply, but the case poses a difficult problem for him: one
of the main aims of recent judicial reforms in France was to remove any
possibility of government interference with cases coming before the courts.
Sadly, Mr Galland's fate is likely to hinge on whether or not the presiding
magistrate ever rolled a spliff in his youth.
Email
jon.henley@guardian.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited Internet Magazine
France's stoners take up arms
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09
09 -0400
justice system, two pro-pot activists risk spending a year in jail for
wearing T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of a cannabis leaf.
A zealous public prosecutor this week demanded 12-month prison terms for
Jean-Pierre Galland, president of the Cannabis Information and Research
Collective, and Laurence Duffy, head of the campaign group's Lyon branch,
for contravening article 630 of the French public health regulations.
The law bans French citizens from "portraying in a favourable light and
promoting or inciting the consumption of any product classed as a banned
substance". The pair are also accused of selling CDs bearing the deeply
suspect title of "A little piece of hemp music".
This is, of course, an absurdity, something that was pointed out by some 40
people, including philosophers, Green MPs, actors, film-makers and
representatives of human rights and Aids groups, who signed an open letter
to the prime minister, Lionel Jospin, saying as much.
Nor is it the first time that the collective, a nationwide association of
committed weed smokers, has run into trouble. The brave Mr Galland has so
far incurred fines totalling £10,000 for his activities, the most memorable
of which was probably to mail all 577 members of the French parliament a
neatly rolled joint along with a letter demanding the relaxation of France's
drugs laws, among the harshest in Europe.
"Nurtured and cosseted by enthusiasts, this cannabis, raised under the sweet
skies of France, has been generously donated by growers to give to you,"
read the letter poetically. The MPs would now be in the same position as the
many thousands of their fellow citizens who had illegally rolled and shared
a joint, it continued: "A law that is broken daily by hundreds of thousands
of people is a bad law. It is time for the state to stop treating cannabis
enthusiasts like delinquents."
To be fair, over the past couple of years, Mr Jospin's Socialist-led
government has begun edging round to the collective's point of view.
Officially, the use, possession and sale of marijuana is still banned,
despite estimates that some 7m of the country's 60m people have tried the
drug at least once and about 2m are regular users.
But after a number of high-profile admissions by ministers, France's
traditionally draconian approach - which theoretically makes the import of
few grammes of Dutch weed punishable by up to 30 years in prison - could no
longer sensibly be maintained.
The Green environment minister, Dominique Voynet, caused uproar among
conservative MPs when she admitted having smoked cannabis and favouring
decriminalisation. "I am more worried by the number of French people who
need sleeping pills than by the number of people who confess to having
smoked a joint," she said.
The Socialist employment (and formerly justice) minister, Elizabeth Guigou,
has also expressed the opinion that smoking the occasional joint was "no
tragedy" and the health minister Bernard Kouchner is known to support the
medical use of cannabis on prescription. Even Mr Jospin, when pressed, will
admit to having smoked some hashish in the past.
The conservative opposition, headed by the president, Jacques Chirac, has
always been hostile to any relaxation. Mr Chirac has repeatedly accused the
Netherlands in particular of encouraging trafficking by tolerating soft
drugs consumption. "Consuming soft drugs inevitably leads to hard drugs," he
said. "All serious people are aware of this."
Nonetheless, encouraged in part by similar moves in several other European
countries, France's inter-ministerial drugs commission last year recommended
a rather softer approach and the justice minister has written to all the
country's judges urging them to avoid prison sentences for offences related
to cannabis consumption.
All of which, as the collective's supporters point out in their letter,
makes the demand of the Lyon public prosecutor even more absurd. "It means,"
they said in their letter to Mr Jospin, "that in France, the birthplace of
human rights, in the year 2001, you can no longer be jailed for consuming
cannabis but you can be for 'portraying its consumption in a favourable
light'."
The PM has yet to reply, but the case poses a difficult problem for him: one
of the main aims of recent judicial reforms in France was to remove any
possibility of government interference with cases coming before the courts.
Sadly, Mr Galland's fate is likely to hinge on whether or not the presiding
magistrate ever rolled a spliff in his youth.
jon.henley@guardian.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited Internet Magazine
France's stoners take up arms
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09
09 -0400