Drug use soars amongst Vatican Hierarchy

Vatican worker convicted in drugs trial

 From correspondents in Vatican City

May 07, 2007 09:12pm
Article from: Reuters

[ROME] - A VATICAN employee has been convicted for possession of cocaine
in the tiny state's first drugs trial, a court official said today.

A man working at the Gubernatorial Palace, the Vatican's city hall, was
handed down a suspended four-month jail sentence by Holy See judges on
Saturday after 87g of cocaine were found in a cabinet drawer in his
office. The man confessed to using cocaine but denied charges of
drugs-dealing, La Repubblica daily said.

La Repubblica said the Vatican had already fired the man, whose name was
not made public, a few days ago after another tribunal found him guilty
in a separate case.

Italian media said the cocaine case was a particularly difficult one to
handle for the Vatican tribunal because of the soaring use of drugs
amongst Vatican staffers and officials and because there are no laws in
the world's smallest state that specifically cover possession and
distribution of drugs.

Gianluigi Marrone, a Vatican judge, said drug use was "damaging to the
health, morality and religion" and the court was able to sentence the
offender "thanks to the international convention on drugs which the Holy
See has signed".

Cocaine-laced wine was a favourite tipple of Pope Leo XIII, who died in
1903.