French Cannabis Crackdown Worsens
Author: Jonty Adderley
Saturday, January 4, 2003
French authorities are planning to increase penalties against cannabis users despite already applying amongst the harshest penalties in Europe. Notorious right wing politician Nicholas Sarkozy, the French Interior minister behind last summer's all out assault on the country's free party scene, is consulting with colleagues to try and reverse the soft drug's growing popularity, the Guardian reported this week.
Present French laws already don't discriminate between marijuana and harder drugs like heroin and first time users caught with tiny amounts can be held in cells for up to 48 hours before being cautioned.
People can also be jailed for up to a year in France for displaying cannabis images on T shirts or anywhere else under a law which bans 'portraying in a favourable light and promoting or inciting the consumption of any product classed as a banned substance'.
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