Jean Lassalle, ex-deputy and a cappella star of the hemicycle, came down to town to talk hemp with ZEWEED. A plant he ardently defends, whether for its fiber or its wellness virtues. Although France’s most popular shepherd has never smoked a joint in his life, he takes a pragmatic, educational approach to the issue, far removed from the dogmatic, out-of-touch approach of the moment. An encounter with the sixth common sense.
If he remains in our memories and hearts, it’s because of the song he sang in the middle of the Assemblée Nationale, in June 2003, in front of a stunned Nicolas Sarkozy and a President of the Assembly (Jean-Louis Debré, RIP) who hesitated to burst out laughing. His Béarnais song (“Aqueros Mountagnos”) was aimed at calling for more gendarmes at the Somport tunnel, and was heard. The gendarmerie did not close and increased its numbers. Three years later, he went on hunger strike to protest against the relocation of the Toyal Europe factory, which employs 150 people in the Aspe valley. In five weeks, he lost 21 kilos and was rushed to hospital. At Jacques Chirac’s instigation, Toyal finally abandoned its plans for a new site. This was another victory for Lassalle, a shepherd who has moved from one media summit to another.
Is there anyone in Lassalle? There certainly is. A whole hinterland even, for this Pyrenean rooted like no other in this immaculate Béarn. Ready to embark on his third presidential campaign, he reacts for ZEWEED to Minister Retailleau’s recent remarks that, contrary to all modern policies on marijuana, seek to penalize, even criminalize consumers by explaining, without biting his tongue, that “to smoke a joint is to have blood on your hands”. Knowing that hemp is one of the star products in his mountains, “Jeannot” couldn’t let these remarks go unpunished. Contacted by telephone, he began to sing and wondered whether this interview would create a buzz, if not a hit, given that he is a non-smoker. So here he is as an advocate of controlled legalization, following in the footsteps of MPs Antoine Léaument (LFI) and Ludovic Mendes (EPR), who tried to rekindle the debate before Retailleau, the new superstar of the hard right, like a shrunken Fillon in the wash, turned it into yet another damp squib to keep France consolidating its backwardness.
ZEWEED: What do you think of the current Minister of the Interior’s line about consumers who, by smoking a joint, have “blood on their hands”?
Jean Lassalle : Mr. Retailleau had a scathing repartee, but what solution does he offer? Anything excessive is derisory, and his reaction is, to say the least, excessive, designed to strike at the spirits, or rather what’s left of them, on certain 24-hour news channels… We’re facing a change of world, and I salute here the two parliamentarians for their courage in freeing themselves from their own channels, held by the staffs of their respective parties. On this subject, I took a similar initiative, in 2021, with the Liot group (Libertés, indépendants, outre-mer et territoires, working on the recognition of the blank vote, the RIC…). The political class as a whole took it upon themselves to cover this initiative in ashes. It’s been a long time since France organized sex-education courses, but that doesn’t mean they’re designed to create potential rapists… On the contrary, they’re designed to teach an essential part of life from the earliest age! And what do we know about soft drugs? Nothing. We only see this problem through the small end of the spyglass, in the end, through repression. Retailleau puts everything in the same basket: consumers, producers, sellers… And if I condemn the networks as much as he does, is it with this kind of chin-wagging policy that we’re going to get at them? It’s better to have an educated, cultured popular force on our side than to let young people discover everything in secret… Which generates a lot of fantasies in the process! We lack foresight. Look, when the General came to power, he increased the research budget by a factor of 10, at all levels, to find out how society was evolving… We need to do that again, to update the system, because, frankly, Retailleau has stuck to Windows 1… Instead of hypocritically hiding everything, by amplifying use through a taste for the forbidden, let’s explain, let’s warn that this culture is no longer a fantasy but a reality that is anchored and therefore controlled in our territories.
“That this culture is no longer a fantasy but a reality anchored and therefore mastered in our territories.”
These areas are also developing with the cultivation of hemp, which does not necessarily have recreational cannabinoid outlets, but can be used to insulate houses, in textiles…
Absolutely, hemp has a plethora of possible uses and it’s legal to grow it, provided you’ve first obtained a farmer’s license and preferably a clean criminal record. ! France is the second largest producer of hemp, after China, and in my region of Béarn, hemp is growing everywhere, fuelling numerous initiatives in Momas and Gelos with Pyrénées Chanvre. a project led by Émilie Abadie and Pauline Lacaze, for use in insulation and textiles. This industrial hemp uses very little water and requires little or no inputs – a godsend for sustainable agriculture! If it’s successful in our region, it can be successful elsewhere. It’s also used to make oils, herbal teas and paper, not to mention therapeutic uses such as stress relief.
No wonder CBD was legalized a year after confinement…
Yes, we need to think in terms of the times and the bigger picture; first of all, consider the benefits of this plant, and then think of the mass of peaceful soldiers who would push these well-understood initiatives, instead of darkening a sky of death… The State needs to invest in the training of dealers, give them a second chance, help them get back on their feet in the legal field by supporting them, with useful and interesting activities like when we had the Portalet fort in the Aspe valley rebuilt by young people in difficulty. It’s time for man to be man again. Otherwise, we’ll continue with increasingly dangerous and armed traffickers, when all we need is a lot of intelligence and a little money to train enough professionals. As far as agriculture is concerned, this could be a source of new income: young people from disadvantaged areas would join the game, not to swell the ranks of criminals but, on the contrary, to fight them.
“It’s better to have an educated, cultured popular force on our side than to let young people discover everything in secret.”
Will you be fighting these battles in the next presidential election?
Listen, I’m on my fourth heart operation, following a nice vaccine against Covid labeled Johnson & Johnson… And to think I used to have a magnificent heart like Eddy Merckx’s! But this perfectly legal and even compulsory vaccine made me perfectly ill. For the time being, I’m going to try and keep the Resistons movement alive; there are lots of projects underway; I’m still President of the World Mountain People Association (WMPA), which brings together over 98 countries… I’m also writing a book, but it’s always the most difficult start – I stop after ten lines [laughs]. After that, as far as my candidacy is concerned, I prefer not to say anything, because everyone talks too much… And nobody listens to each other.
