CANNABIS CAMPAIGN FRANCE HINTS AT LEGALISATION

From John Lichfield in Paris

The French health minister, Bernard Kouchner, is in favour of the partial
legalisation of cannabis. He is the third member of the present French
government in recent months to express a view of this kind.

Mr Kouchner said last week that the medicinal prescription of cannabis
should "obviously" be legalised. The Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, has
already said that he favours decriminalisation. The environment minister,
Dominique Voynet, has called for outright legalisation of the drug.

The issue will be one of several drugrelated questions to be studied in
depth at a conference at the health ministry in Paris next Friday and
Saturday. The conference brings together politicians, civil servants,
doctors and drugs experts, who will make cautious recommendations to Mr
Kouchner.

French officials say that the meeting is not likely to push for an
immediate change in the repressive 1970 drug law. But it may call on the
government to encourage a public debate on the subject to allow new
legislation to be developed before the next presidential and general
elections in 2002.

During his successful election campaign in May, Mr Jospin said he believed
the use of cannabis should be decriminalised. He has not spoken on the
subject since. The environment minister, Ms Voynet, who is herself a
doctor, caused a public row in September by admitting to smoking cannabis.

Pressed by a magazine interviewer to say whether she has continued to smoke
joints since she became a minister, Ms Voynet, leader of the main French
green party, replied: "Merde!" (Shit!). She went on to say she regarded
cannabis as less dangerous than sleeping tablets and that she favoured
legalisation of the drug "both as a doctor and as a politician".

Mr Kouchner was much more guarded. "Obviously, it should be possible to
prescribe [cannabis]," he said. "For a doctor that could be a real benefit."

In 1995, a committee of investigation appointed by the centreright
government of Edouard Balladur, voted narrowly in favour of the
decriminalisation of a number of soft drugs, including cannabis. Overall,
there appears to be a cautious body of opinion forming in the Socialistled
French government in favour of a relaxation of drug laws. The one powerful
figure who is said to be virulently against such a step is the employment
minister, and de facto deputy prime minister, Martine Aubry. Her political
base is in Lille, in northern France, which has one of the most serious
heroin problems of any French city. Ms Aubry is said to blame the problem
on the proximity of the Netherlands with its relatively relaxed drugs laws.

But both Mr Kouchner and Mr Jospin whatever their personal views are
reluctant to get "too far ahead of the music", according to the newspaper
Liberation. In other words, they want to prepare public opinion in France
and proceed broadly in line with legal developments in other EU countries.