BODY SHOP'S HEMP PRODUCTS BLOW UP A STORM IN FRANCE

THE Body Shop may be prosecuted for promoting drug use after French police
raided a branch of the ecologically friendly retail group in
Aix-en-Provence. They seized stocks of hand lotion, lip conditioner and
body oil from the company's new hemp product range, claiming that they
encouraged the use of cannabis. The Body Shop products are made with
industrial-grade hemp seed oil extracted from the hemp plant, which is part
of the cannabis family. The oil does contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol),
the compound that provides the "high" from marijuana, but only in
negligible quantities.

"You'd have to smoke a hemp joint the size of a telephone pole to get the
least buzz and you'd die from carbon monoxide first," Anita Roddick, the
founder of The Body Shop, said yesterday. She expressed "amazement" at the
action of the gendarmes, who also seized all promotional material on the
products during the raid on Wednesday.

The seized items were returned, but a report was submitted to the public
prosecutor in Aix-en-Provence. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said
yesterday that any legal action would probably focus on the packaging
rather than the products. Posters advertising the range show the hemp leaf.

A Body Shop spokesman denied that the range encouraged drug use and said
the company's aim was to distance industrial hemp from marijuana by
educating people on the ecological benefits of cultivating hemp and the
uses to which it could be put. There are more than 25,000 known uses for
hemp, including fuel, textiles, building materials and fabrics.

The hemp seed oil used to make the Body Shop products comes from France,
which Ms Roddick described as "being in the forefront of the hemp
revolution".

The Body Shop launched the hemp products in its 22 shops in France on
Monday. The range has already enjoyed huge success in Britain and America.
In Britain, it accounted for 5 per cent of total sales in April, a month
after it was introduced.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson