Time: Sat Sep 20 19:23:30 1997
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Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 20:31:05 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: carl@commonlink.net (Carl E. Olsen)
To: Multiple recipients of list <drctalk@drcnet.org>
Subject: (Fwd) French Minister on Legalizing Cannabis

hansi@aol.com (Hansi) wrote:

PARIS, Sept 17 (Reuter) - France's Environment Minister Dominique Voynet,
in an admission sure to cause an outcry among conservatives, has said she
smoked marijuana and thinks cannabis should be legalised. 

``Yes,'' Voynet told the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo when an
interviewer asked whether she had smoked joints. 

When asked if she still smoked them, she replied with the French expletive
``merde'' to brush off further questions. 

In the interview published on Wednesday, Voynet said that as a politician
and a trained medical doctor, she favoured legalising cannabis. 

While heroin addiction often affects people predisposed to drug addiction,
``the occasional consumption of cannabis has no effect on health and social
relations,'' she said. 

``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 head of the French Greens, Voynet reluctantly joined the Socialist-led
cabinet after a ``pink-red-green'' coalition ousted the conservatives from
power in June's parliamentary elections. 

The previous cabinet campaigned strongly against drugs, often accusing the
Netherlands of failing to crack down on the illicit trade in cannabis and
becoming a major source of supply for French users. 

05:49 09-17-97


      

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