FRANCE TO TOUGHEN LAWS ON CANNABIS

France is planning to tighten restrictions on the smoking of cannabis in an
attempt to curb its steadily rising popularity.

Campaigners claim that millions of people are regularly defying existing
laws as more plantations of cannabis are discovered, particularly in the
south of the country.

At normal levels of consumption, up to three million French people will
have smoked the drug on Christmas day.

France's hardline interior minister, Nicholas Sarkozy, has been consulting
cabinet members and government officials on raising the maximum penalties
for cannabis use, from the present level of a year in prison or a UKP5,000
fine.

This month the government made it an offence to drive under the drug's
influence after a series of fatal road accidents.

The interior ministry's anti-drugs chief, Michel Bouchet, has also been
asked to investigate the cultivation of cannabis after police reported that
more than 40,000 plants were pulled out in raids last year, compared to
1,500 10 years ago.

But the pro-cannabis Collectif d'information et de recherche cannibiques,
Circ, claimed that there was not a village south of the Loire valley
without a plantation. In addition, hundreds of thousands of plants were
grown indoors.

The fashion for home-grown cannabis was linked to two DIY books, Fumee
clandestine (secret smoke) and Culture en placard (cupboard growing) which
have sold 100,000 copies between them.

Drugs squad detectives admit to being overwhelmed, during this month's Hemp
Salon in central Paris.

The event was backed by Circ's founder, Jean-Pierre Galland, who campaigns
through the Green party for the legalisation of the drug. He has had to pay
about UKP30,000 in fines for his lobbying activities in its favour.

Police visited the salon but there were no arrests despite the sale of
gadgets such as the Pollinator which can be used to make hashish.

Visitors were given catalogues by Sensi Seedbank, Holland's main producer,
but many amateur growers depend on cannabis seeds sold to feed racing
pigeons, which, according to one advertisement, "was like putting a
turbo-engine into a sparrow".

Other catalogues offered bat manure, considered as the best fertiliser for
growing the seven-leaved plant.

"The great problem is not police raids but theft," a grower from the Var said.

"You'll find small fields hidden in pine forests. Once they have been
located, they have to be guarded night and day. A good crop earns enough to
keep you all year round, even though it is sold only to friends."

So far, no action has been taken against shops selling specialised
equipment, of which there are about 50 in France.

But a decision will have to be taken soon on whether to stop the annual
summer festival at Montjean-sur-Loire where cannabis, described as "the
symbol of the Loire valley", is easily available.

"It's only a matter of time before pot overtakes tobacco," a festival
organiser said.

"There are already nearly half as many pot smokers as tobacco smokers. Some
of our visitors say that cannabis saved their life."