PAULE, France -- To the young, they are free-for-alls of drug-induced revelry and thumping techno beats in the bucolic French countryside. To President Jacques Chirac, they are a growing problem. Rave parties, Dionysian fests involving abundant marijuana, heroin, cocaine and especially the designer drug Ecstasy, have been around for about a decade in Europe. But now, with five rave-related deaths reported in a year and increasing property damage, they are drawing the attention of France's political establishment. [continues 173 words]
Parties Draw Thousands To Countryside PAULE, France -- To the young, they are free-for-alls of drug-induced revelry and thumping techno beats in the bucolic French countryside. To President Jacques Chirac, they are a growing problem. Rave parties, Dionysian fests involving abundant marijuana, heroin, cocaine and especially ecstasy, have been around for about a decade in Europe. But now, with five rave-related deaths reported in a year and increasing property damage, they are drawing the attention of France's political establishment. [continues 652 words]
A State Department investigation into a joint U.S.-Peruvian program to interdict drug traffickers' airplanes has reached a clear-cut, if dismaying, conclusion. According to the report released Thursday, the probe, which followed the accidental shooting down in April of a private plane carrying American missionaries, found that sloppy discipline and procedures explained how CIA-contracted trackers and Peruvian Air Force personnel could have combined to target and kill innocent people. The program dates back to 1994, so the Bush administration can hardly be blamed for its failures. [continues 354 words]
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner was quoted Wednesday as admitting that he had practiced euthanasia on dying patients and urging the decriminalization of marijuana in France. Kouchner, a founder of the Nobel Peace prize-winning aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, told the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland that he had ended the lives of patients during wars in Lebanon and Vietnam. The minister said he took it on himself to end the lives of suffering patients, and said the practice was secretly done often in France. But he did not say he himself had practiced euthanasia in France, where it is illegal. [continues 134 words]
PARIS -- When it comes to mandating treatment for drug addicts, French leaders have a tip for Americans: They've been there, done that and found out it's not the answer. Not by itself, anyway. "We tried that in France already," said Nicole Maestracci, head of the nation's drug-control office. "Compulsory treatment doesn't work. If you take care of the drug problem but don't give a person a chance to change his life, he will go back to the drugs." [continues 307 words]
A GROWTH promoting protein in the brain may be partly responsible for Parkinson's disease, drug addiction and schizophrenia, scientists said yesterday. The protein, Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) was thought to be needed simply for the proliferation, maturation and survival of nerve cells. But a team of French researchers has found it also boosts levels of a receptor molecule called D3 which allows neurones to respond to dopamine. Dopamine is a key chemical which enables neurones to communicate with one another. Faults in the dopamine message system are believed to be involved in brain disorders, including Parkinson's and schizophrenia, as well as drug addiction. The scientists, led by Olivier Guillin from the Unite de Neurobiologie et Pharmacologie Moleculaire in Paris, conducted experiments with rats genetically engineered to provide a "model" of Parkinson's disease. [continues 54 words]
A substance produced by the brain to help cells grow also helps a key chemical messenger do its job, a finding that could shed new light on Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia and drug addiction, researchers say. The substance, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, has long been known to help brain cells mature and survive. The researchers found that BDNF also helps the messenger dopamine by providing a pathway used to deliver the message. The findings are reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by Pierre Sokoloff of INSERM, the French equivalent of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues in Paris and Marseille, France. [continues 243 words]
Regarding the report "In Capital of Ecstasy, the Dutch Practice Tolerance" A logical, measured drug policy eludes the United States because all illicit substances are treated as equal. A growing majority of the world's citizens realizes not only that each drug is different, but that treating them the same way restricts our ability to control the most harmful drugs. Legalization does not mean a full-blown, unrestricted, unregulated scheme, similar to the black market system that reigns in most countries today. [continues 285 words]
In announcing that his first foreign trip as president will be to Mexico, George W. Bush is living up to his campaign pledge to forge a "special relationship" with it. Although that phrase is usually reserved for America's traditional friendship with Britain, Mr. Bush is right to set ambitious goals for strengthening relations with Mexico. Thanks to President Vicente Fox's electoral defeat of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party last year, a more democratic Mexico can be an important American ally in the Western Hemisphere. [continues 488 words]
In the next few weeks, Colombia's complex conflict with guerrillas and drug traffickers is likely to come to a head, on more than one front. In the jungle-draped southern state of Putamayo, two new U.S.-trained Colombian army battalions are supposed to go into action for the first time in support of a major offensive against the plantations and labs of the cocaine industry, marking the military debut of Plan Colombia, the multibillion-dollar program to combat the narcotics trade. [continues 494 words]
As a nation we now have nearly half a million people behind bars on drug charges, more than the total prison population in all of Western Europe. And the burden of this explosion in incarceration falls disproportionately on black and Latino communities. Deaths attributable to marijuana are very rare. In fact, deaths from all illegal drugs combined, including cocaine and heroin, are fewer than 20,000 annually. By contrast, more than 450,000 Americans die each year from tobacco or alcohol use (not counting drunk driving fatalities). Should we outlaw liquor and cigarettes? Ask anyone who remembers our nation's disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition. [continues 87 words]
PARIS - Not much has been said about the impact elsewhere in South America of Plan Colombia, the U.S. program for semi military intervention in Colombia. The Washington debate has been about whether sending $1.3 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia - helicopters, arms and military training programs - will produce any drop in the amount of drugs available on the U.S. market and whether American soldiers might be drawn into the fighting between the Colombian Army and rebel groups that control regions where the raw drugs are produced. [continues 778 words]
Relations between France and Monaco, the tiny country on its southern coast, plunged to their lowest ebb in 38 years yesterday. The French government threatened to tear up all its political, economic and administrative agreements with Monaco, unless it took steps to control the influx of "dirty'' money from drug-trafficking and organised crime. The threat, although based on real international concerns about Monaco's involvement in money-laundering, creates a bizarre state of affairs. Monaco is largely administered by French officials. [continues 73 words]
PARIS -- One of the last survivors of the notorious French Connection drug-trafficking era, Francis "the Belgian" Vanverberghe, was shot dead in a Paris betting shop yesterday, police said. Vanverberghe, 54, was hit several times at close range by a gunman, who escaped on the back of an accomplice's motorbike. A bystander in the shop, in Paris's smart Eighth Arrondissement, was injured in the attack. Jailed for 12 years in 1977 for belonging to the French Connection drug gang based in the southern port of Marseille, Vanverberghe was considered one of the Mediterranean city's last underworld godfathers. The gang inspired the 1971 Oscar-winning film "The French Connection" starring Gene Hackman. [end]
WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton bought $1.3 billion worth of political cover the other day by giving final authorization to a controversial anti-drug aid package for Colombia. He will visit, ever so briefly, that South American country on Wednesday to check on his investment. Mr. Clinton hauls in a bargain, since the money is not his. He buys protection for the Democrats against silly charges of being soft on drugs and throws in a presidential stopover for a few hours in a place that is every security agent's nightmare. [continues 683 words]
PARIS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - French customs have found 1.5 tonnes (3,307 lbs) of cannabis resin in a truck waiting to cross to Britain through the Channel tunnel, a judicial source said on Saturday. The cannabis, which came from Morocco, has an estimated street value of 50 million francs ($7 million). It was hidden among a consignment of kitchen knives and discovered on July 28 as customs officers carried out random checks on lorries arriving at the Coquelles terminal to join a train bound for Britain. [continues 57 words]
Congress has granted the Clinton administration the $1.3 billion it sought to help Colombia fight drug cultivation and trafficking. But before final passage of the legislation, congressional conferees stripped away some of the important human rights and environmental safeguards added by the Senate. Without these restrictions on the use of U.S. aid, the United States could find itself drawn into the long war between the Colombian government and leftist guerrillas, a war that neither side can expect to win by military means. [continues 291 words]
Principality Condemned As A 'Non-Cooperative Territory' The French parliament's Information Mission on Financial Crime and Money Laundering in Europe last week published an explosive report on Monaco. The report, The Principality Of Monaco And Money Laundering: a territory that turns a blind eye under French protection, will mark a milestone in relations between the two states. France's protection of Monaco must now surely be called into question. It goes back to the Treaty of Péronne, signed in 1641 by Louis XIII and Honoré II, and is based on a series of bilateral agreements. [continues 825 words]
Jack Lang, the French education minister and star of Lionel Jospin's cabinet, faced calls to resign yesterday after he suggested that cannabis should be tolerated and backed steps to ensure that only good quality ecstasy was sold in dance clubs. Politicians and parents' groups were appalled at the idea of a senior minister undermining the state's legal and educational drive against drug use. Philippe de Villiers, co-leader of the conservative Rassemblement pour la France, said Mr Lang's remarks were mind-boggling and called for the minister's "immediate departure". During his nine years as culture minister under the late President Mitterrand, the Parisian socialist Mr Lang courted popularity and controversy with actions that included promoting gay rights and giving state support to techno-music. [continues 217 words]
Regarding "Kentucky Swaps Moonshine for Marijuana" (American Topics, May 17): Is it any surprise that poverty-stricken Kentuckians are growing pot? Marijuana laws create financial incentives that make an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. Marijuana prohibition is no more effective than alcohol prohibition was at preventing use. And, Re Prohibition in the early 1900s, the societal harm caused by the unintended consequences is tremendous. The manner in which drug laws finance organized crime receives a great deal of press coverage, yet it is the threat these laws pose to children that necessitates marijuana legalization, While a liquor store will refuse to sell alcohol to a minor to avoid losing its license, a drug dealer will sell to anyone with cash. [continues 135 words]
SPAIN has become Europe's ''primary clearing house,'' for drugs, with Spaniards themselves largely responsible for letting international criminal organisations infest the country, according to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, a non profit organisation that monitors drug trafficking. In a 248 page report, the Paris based organisation said that Spain has emerged as a ''gigantic drug bazaar'' where criminal groups trade goods and services. The Geopolitical Drug Watch, or OGD, cited alleged corruption among elected officials, police, the judiciary - and even chemistry professors. It cited, for example, police officers and judicial officials in Galicia, in northern Spain, acting as informants for drug traffickers. [continues 175 words]
PARIS, (AFP) - Drugs traffickers are thriving on economic globalisation which makes money-laundering increasingly easy, the Paris-based Geopolitical Drugs Watch (GDW) said in a 1998-1999 report published Thursday. "Around 350 to 400 billion dollars of drugs money was reintegrated into the global economy over the last year," according to the report, which said the staggering figures were a result of opening financial borders and increased privatisation. Laundering is rife in Africa, where bartering is a way of life and people swap goods for money bypassing banks, according to the report. [continues 452 words]
The Dark Side Of Globalisation By linking scarcity to price, the universal gospel of liberal thought teaches that exploiting scarcity is the fountain of all wealth. It follows that the foundation of any righteous economy is the market players' ability to get hold of the scarce commodities that will make them rich. But what is scarce in a world where the development of new technologies makes distance a thing of the past and "niches" of scarcity in the tightest nooks and crannies accessible for exploitation? [continues 1834 words]
LOS ANGELES - Recently, General Barry McCaffrey, the U.S. drug-policy chief, was invited to Southern California for a debate. He said all he had time to do was give a speech and answer a few questions. My question was: Many people in California feel that the federal government is closed-minded, even arrogant, in dealing with medical marijuana. The voters here approved Proposition 215 by a wide margin, allowing sick people to use marijuana as medicine if it was recommended to them by a doctor, and similar measures have passed in four other states and the District -of Columbia. Will you now do what you can to cause the U.S. government to allow the will of the voters in these states to prevail? [continues 600 words]
PARIS - The Clinton administration has put before Congress an "emergency" $1.6 billion program to expand military assistance to the Colombian army and security forces fighting both an insurrection and the drug trade. Administration officials say this program will be part of what will "probably be a huge effort, lasting for years," whose objective is "to strengthen Colombian institutions and help the government reach a peace" with the leftist guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitary forces responsible for years of chaotic violence in Colombia. [continues 716 words]
More than 2,000 ravers recently took over the "saloon" of a derelict Wild West theme park in Fleurines, near Paris. They danced till dawn to the ear-splitting sound of hardcore techno that races along at more than 200 beats per minute. A generator dimly lit the DJs' consoles and a bar, where cans of beer and Coca-Cola were selling for about $1.50. The dancers' average age was around 25. Less than a quarter of them were women. The atmosphere was unaggressive and convivial. [continues 1074 words]
In Marseille, France, some vending machines dispense neither soda nor candy but free sterile needles for drug users. In Vancouver, British Columbia, a stack of colorful coupons sits next to the register at a local drugstore, offering 10 percent off on condoms. The two endeavors aim to block the spread of infectious diseases, especially AIDS, by making preventive tools available to people who might be reluctant to seek them out in clinics or doctors' offices. And two studies in the December issue of The American Journal of Public Health suggest that they are working. [continues 554 words]
WESTPORT, Dec 02 (Reuters Health) - More than one fifth of injection drug users surveyed in Marseille, France, use vending machines as their primary source of syringes. "By reaching a different-in particular, a younger-group of injection drug users, syringe vending machines can further the prevention of HIV and other blood-borne infections," Dr. Yolande Obadia, of Institut Paoli Calmettes, in Marseille, and multinational colleagues say in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Vending machines, which accept used syringes and dispense sterile ones in return, were introduced in Marseilles in 1996. The team surveyed injection drug users who obtained syringes from vending machines, pharmacies, and needle exchange programs. Of the 343 users identified, 21.3% reported using vending machines as their primary source of syringes. [continues 147 words]
"I don't see why a great power, even the greatest in the world, shouldn't be criticised by an organisation like Amnesty International, even if the United States is certainly not the most blameworthy country as far as human rights are concerned," says Herve Bourges, president of France's broadcasting watchdog, the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA). He was reacting to the decision by the Bureau de Verification de la Publicite (BVP), a body made up of advertisers and broadcasters, which monitors advertising standards, to ban a video put out by the French section of Amnesty International. [continues 413 words]
The social cost to France of the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs is more than pounds 21bn a year, according to an official study published yesterday. The received view that the French were able to control their drinking habits is untrue, the report indicates. "Consumption is exceptionally high and the final bill is extremely heavy," it says. "There is a collective misunderstanding of the dangers of alcohol in a country where a regular intake is perceived as a protection against heart problems." [continues 469 words]
Dumbing down, American-style The projection of United States' power abroad has much to do with the way in which its internal consensus is formed. Ever-present advertising, ideological bombardment by institutions that challenge the very idea of public policies for the common good, isolation and cultural protectionism: this is the heavy price Americans pay as their tribute to the god of business. by HERBERT I SCHILLER Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. For at least half a century, the global theatre has had one dominating actor - the United States of America. Less in total direction of the stage now than 25 years ago, the American presence in the world economy and culture remains commanding: a gross national product of $7,690 billion in 1998, the home base of the majority of the transnational corporations that scour the world for markets and profits, the overseer of the many facades of international decision-making, the United Nations Organisation, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and others, the cultural-electronic Goliath of the universe. Its supremacy is recognised universally and with increasing resentment, to judge by the comments of a British diplomat reported by the American academic, Samuel P Huntington: "One reads about the world's desire for American leadership only in the United States. Everywhere else one reads about American arrogance and unilateralism" (1). [continues 2701 words]
POLICE in the south of France have detained a 72-year-old Spaniard for transporting drugs, the 12th old-age pensioner caught this year, French customs said yesterday. The unnamed Spaniard, the oldest to be caught so far, was from Madrid and was carrying 22lb of cocaine in his car when he was stopped on Monday as he crossed from Italy. Police in Nice said the new breed of drug smugglers was likely to be European, aged more than 60, retired, carrying little luggage and travelling alone. [continues 259 words]
Human Rights Court Rules For Dutch-Moroccan Drug Dealer PARIS---France, a country that has proudly enshrined human rights since 1789, was ordered Wednesday by the European Court of Human Rights to pay the equivalent of $100,000 to a convicted DutchMoroccan drug dealer for violating his rights with police "torture" to make him confess. France thus joined Turkey as the only two of the 41 members of the Council of Europe to be found guilty of torture. The human rights court sits on French territory in Strasbourg, and Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou suffered the embarrassment in silence when asked for reaction by journalists. [continues 300 words]
France,a country that has proudly enshrined human rights since 1789, was ordered by the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday to pay the equivalent of $100,000 to a convicted Dutch-Moroccan drug dealer for violating his rights with police "torture" to make him confess. France thus joined Turkey as the only two of the 41 member countries of the Council of Europe to be found guilty of torture by a court sitting on French territory in Strasbourg. The court, established in 1959, found that Ahmed Selmouni, 57, had suffered heavy blows over almost all of his body in "repeated and sustained assaults" over at least four days of questioning by the police in the Paris suburb of Bobigny in November 1991. [end]
French scientists yesterday announced the discovery of a ground-breaking substance that significantly dampens drug cravings in rats and could eventually shield former heroin, alcohol or tobacco addicts from the temptation of taking up their habit again. There is a very strong parallel between the animal model we used and what is observed in humans, said Pierre Sokoloff, who heads the team from the National Health and Medical Research Institute in Paris. From the animal studies we have done, I have to say that we are very optimistic. [continues 372 words]
PARIS -- The Tour de France, one of Europe's legendary sporting events, will draw 180 of the finest bicycle riders in the world Saturday to a theme park in western France. From there, they will embark on the Tour's annual three-week race to Paris. In a typical year, an estimated 15 million people line the race route and another 160 million worldwide watch on television. And in a typical year, Daniel Baal would be among the most interested spectators. Baal is the president of the French Cycling Federation and a vice president of the International Cycling Union, which governs the sport worldwide. But Baal said he had been unable to watch a bicycle race this season. [continues 2739 words]
A court convicted Gen. Manuel Noriega and his wife in absentia of laundering $2.7 million in drug profits through French banks for Colombia's Medellin drug cartel in 1988 and 1989, before a U.S. invasion ended his dictatorial rule in Panama. General Noriega, who was decorated as a commander of the Legion of Honor in France in 1987, is now serving a prison sentence in Florida on a money-laundering conviction. His wife's whereabouts are unknown. The French court gave them both 10-year jail sentences and ordered them to pay $33 million in fines. [end]
ITALIAN team Polti's French rider Richard Virenque - at the centre of last year's Tour de France drugs scandal - has been barred from this year's race. Two further French cyclists and the Dutch TVM team, as well as the director of Spanish outfit ONCE, have also been excluded. The action of the Tourorganisers may cause further withdrawals, with France's world No1 Laurent Jalabert already pulling out apparently in support of the banned ONCE director. Hein Verbruggen, president of the world governing body, the International Cycling Union, said he understood the position of the Tour organisers. However, he added: "I regret the consequences that will follow in reviving controversy and potential judicial processes." [continues 94 words]
Penal 'common sense' comes to Europe As gigantic industrial and financial mergers are sweeping across the United States and Europe, to the seeming indifference of the governments concerned, political leaders everywhere are vying with each other to think up and implement new ways of cracking down on crime. The mainstream media, often forgetting that urban violence is rooted in the generalisation of social insecurity, contribute with their own biases to defining these alleged threats to society. Many of the remedies commonly proposed ('zero tolerance', curfews, suspension of social allowances to offenders' families, increased repression of minors) take their inspiration from the American model. And, as in the United States, they are bound to lead to the extension of social control compounded with exploding rates of imprisonment. [continues 4162 words]
PARIS, March 30 (Reuters) - A routine spot check on a British truck near the Channel port of Dunkirk yielded France's biggest seizure of ecstasy drugs, French customs said on Tuesday. The drugs haul, made last Friday, was worth more than 92 million francs ($15 million). Drugs seized included 580,000 ecstasy tablets, almost 40 kilos (88 lb) of cocaine and hundreds of kilos of cannabis and cannabis resin. The drugs were hidden among pallets of wine in the lorry, which was driven by a British national and had passed through the Netherlands and Germany with a load from Belgium. [continues 92 words]
A French investigating judge must decide this week whether to start formal proceedings against the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, for drug dealing and crimes against humanity. The case - brought by two Cuban exiles and a French photographer in the wake of the Pinochet affair - has already caused considerable embarrassment to the French government. The Justice Ministry has made clear it wants nothing to do with the allegations, because President Castro is regarded as a "friend of France". None the less, substantial prima facie evidence of the involvement of the Cuban regime in cocaine trafficking - including smuggling through the port of Marseilles - has been presented to the examining magistrate in charge of the case. [continues 477 words]
LILLE, France, Feb 17 (Reuters) - French customs officials said on Wednesday they had seized 20 tonnes of cannabis resin from a boat they boarded in the English Channel, the largest cannabis haul on French territory. The discovery was the second big drugs seizure by French authorities in the past few days after police raiding a suburban Paris warehouse at the weekend and found 1.2 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a disused merry-go-round and a van. The officials said customs officers discovered the cannabis resin concealed in the hold of an ageing fishing vessel, the Nemo, sailing under an Estonian flag with a 14-strong crew, most of them from Russia, Poland and Ukraine. Investigators said they believed the drugs were from Morocco. The boat was heading through the English Channel when it was stopped and boarded by customs officials and ordered into the northern port of Boulogne-sur-Mer. [end]
LILLE, France, French customs officials said on Wednesday they had seized 23.5 tonnes of cannabis resin from a boat they boarded in the English Channel, the largest cannabis haul on French territory. The discovery, worth an estimated 200 million francs ($34.3 million), was the second big drugs seizure for French law enforcement authorities in the past few days. Police raiding a suburban Paris warehouse at the weekend found 1.2 tonnes of cocaine concealed in a van and a disused merry-go-round. [continues 75 words]
PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - A raid on a suburban Paris warehouse netted more cocaine than was seized in France in all of 1998, French police said on Saturday. Seven people were in custody in connection with the seizure of 1,200 kg (2,650 lb) of the drug, they added. The cocaine was found hidden in a van and concealed in a disused merry-go-round being stored in a warehouse in the village of Tigery, south of Paris. Investigators said they had begun tracking the drug shipment after it was unloaded in the northern French port of Dunkerque. They said it had been shipped to France from Latin America by way of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. {Reuters:International-0213.00071} 02/13/99 [end]
STRASBOURG, France, - A senior member of the European Parliament found with cannabis and a sex video in his suitcase apologised to the European Union assembly on Monday and said he had acted foolishly. Tom Spencer, suspended from Britain's Conservative group in the Strasbourg assembly after the discovery late last month, told colleagues his act had been one "of extraordinary foolishness". "I would like to make it clear that those who would use my stupidity to attack Europe and its parliament that the fault is mine and mine alone...I offer my apologies to parliament," Spencer told the assembly as it gathered in Strasbourg for its monthly plenary session. [continues 150 words]
PARIS (AP) - Anti-drug investigations now being carried out by the French Cycling Federation point to possible errors in previous testing, the federation's president told a French newspaper. "We have noted a number of anomalies," FFC president Daniel Baal said in an interview to be published today by France Soir. Baal said that investigations have confirmed a widespread use of banned drugs. "The controls show that we need to get down to work," he said. Professional cycling is trying to recover from the scandal that rocked the 1998 Tour de France. Tour organizers threw out the Spanish Festina team after team officials admitted to the systematic use of banned drugs. The FFC wants to set up a scheme under which cyclists would be tested every three months. That system would allow the federation to detect unusual changes in cyclists' physical condition, Baal said. [continues 5 words]
French researchers report that HIV-infected individuals who are active injection drug users are much less likely to receive antiretroviral drugs than HIV-infected patients who no longer inject drugs. The study, which is reported in the January issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, evaluated the impact of patients' injection drug use on doctors' prescribing habits and perceptions. The researchers noted that IDUs' efforts to reduce their risk of HIV infection were convincing and that both IDUs and AIDS experts needs to work to overcome the perception of poor compliance among drug users. [end]
PARIS, Jan 7 (Reuters) - France should take a more pragmatic approach to fighting drug abuse and take into account the fact that alcohol and tobacco kill far more people than heroin or cocaine, an inter-ministerial committee has told the government. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's office said on Thursday the committee's recommendations, yet to be approved by the cabinet, were based on a policy of "prevention, repression and treatment". Le Monde newspaper, which published extracts from the report on Thursday, said the committee urged the government to adopt a policy "which takes into account all types of addictive behaviour, regardless of the legal status of the product". [continues 183 words]
PARIS (AP) A lawyer representing a Cuban exile in France filed a complaint today against Fidel Castro, accusing Cuba's leader of international drug-trafficking, judicial officials said. The complaint was filed with Paris courts by lawyer Serge Lewisch on behalf of Ileana de la Guardia. She is the daughter of Cuban Col. Antonio de la Guardia, who was executed in Cuba in 1989 for allegedly smuggling drugs into the United States, said the officials, who requested anonymity. Lewisch also filed complaints against Castro on behalf of a French photographer, Pierre Golendorf, who spent 2 1/2 years in a Cuban jail, and Cuban artist Lazaro Jordana, jailed for four years for illegally leaving the country. [continues 367 words]
PARIS (AP) The French Cycling Federation has handed down bans of 4 1/2 months to three cyclists from the Festina team that was expelled from the scandal-rocked Tour de France, French television reported Monday. Laurent Brochard, Christophe Moreau and Didier Roux, who have all admitted to taking banned drugs, will be prevented from competing until April 30, LCI television said. None of the three has raced since the Tour. The FFC is still examining the cases of Richard Virenque and Pascal Herve, two cyclists who deny that they knowingly took banned substances. [continues 96 words]
Inside France
