'Pot' shot fired by Jospin's loosest cannon

FROM BEN MACINTYRE IN PARIS

DOMINIQUE VOYNET, the outspoken French Environment Minister, has called for
legalisation of cannabis and admitted smoking marijuana herself in an
interview that will embarrass Cabinet colleagues and confirm her reputation
as the loosest cannon in the Government.

This week Mme Voynet, head of the French Green Party, replied "Yes" when
asked by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo whether she had smoked
"joints".

The interviewer, Frangois Cami, then asked if she still smoked marijuana.
Mme Voynet responded with an emphatic, if ambiguous, French expletive to
sidestep the question. "Merde," said the Environment Minister.

A medical doctor, Mme Voynet insisted that the occasional use of cannabis
had "no effect on health and social relations" and should be legalised. "I
have always been in favour of legalisation ... I am more concerned by the
number of people who need sleeping pills than the number who confess to
having smoked a joint," she said.

Mme Voynet was brought into the Cabinet after the victory of an electoral
coalition of Socialists, Communists and Greens. The election marked the
first time that the environmentalists had won seats in parliament.

Mme Voynet's views on cannabis, which have not been backed by the rest of
the Cabinet or Lionel Jospin, the Prime Minister, represent a stark
departure from the policy of the previous Government, which promised a
crackdown on drugs and criticised The Netherlands for its liberal policies.

In the short life of the leftwing Government, Mme Voynet has emerged as
the minister most likely to provoke controversy. After the death of Diana,
Princess of Wales, she said she did not understand the level of emotion
aroused and said the accident should be put "into perspective".

Mme Voynet's remarks on legalising drugs are likely to put further strain
on the ruling coalition. An annual rally in support of legalising drugs,
backed by the Greens, was cancelled by the Paris prefecture earlier this
year, with the approval of the Interior Minister, JeanPierre Chivhnement.

Compounding the Government's uncertainty on the issue is the fact that
Bernard Kouchner, the Health Minister, is a signatory to a petition calling
for the legalisation of cannabis. During the election campaign, M Jospin
admitted that drug laws dating back to 1970 needed urgent revision. "Far
from preventing drug addiction, the law only aggravates a problem that
should be examined in the light of the experiences and policies put into
effect by our neighbours."

Confirming her reputation for shooting from the hip, on Tuesday Mme Voynet
accused the national nuclear reprocessing company, Cogema, of violating
safety rules. After a complaint by Greenpeace, she said the company had
broken security regulations during a cleanup operation in the plant at La
Hague, on the Channel near Cherbourg. The minister said the cleansing
operation would be resumed "only when total confinement is assured", and
promised a police report.

Allegations of high radioactivity levels around the plant earlier this year
prompted her to issue an immediate ban on fishing, sailing and swimming in
the vicinity in advance of an official safety report.