SWEDES FUME OVER CANNABIS DESIGN ON RUCKSACKS

STOCKHOLM, Aug 31 (Reuters) - A chain of stores in Sweden is smoking hot
with anger after receiving a shipment of rucksacks decorated with a
cannabis leaf print rather than the maple leaf design it ordered, a local
Swedish newspaper reported on Friday.

The Denmark-based Jysk Baddlager chain immediately came under fire from a
Swedish county anti-drug centre for the mistaken pattern, which store
management has promised it will straighten out.

"Our purchasing department in Denmark ordered rucksacks with the Canadian
maple leaf printed on as a decoration. Instead, we got these," said Knud
Lauridsen, head of the company's operations in Sweden.

Although Sweden has one of the strictest anti-drug policies in Europe,
Denmark is moving towards softer legislation regarding possession and use
of softer drugs such as cannabis.

"One may interpret the symbols on the bags as cannabis leaves. We do not
encourage people to use drugs and we don't support liberal drug policies,"
Mikael Blom, spokesman for Jysk Baddlager in Sweden, told Reuters.

He said the cannabis-rucksacks were produced in the Far East. "We will not
order any more of these rucksacks," he said.