The incident was reported in many media outlets, but was quickly refuted by Jimmy in a statement posted on his website:

I have tried over the years, to live below the radar when it comes to the “celebrity” thing. I see what I do as just a job, a really fun job that has opened the world, its people and places. However, I seem to still have a way of causing commotion now and then.

In Toulon, we arrived at the private terminal to leave and were moving through security, when my captain informed me that we were being ramp checked by French customs and some plainclothes guys. This is nothing new but what was strange was that the search was being conducted as we were leaving – not as we were arriving. No big deal – I thought. I found my bag and opened it up and they went right for a little pouch which contained my prescription medicines which was sitting on top of my clothes, not the most secretive part of my bag. I don’t know about you, but at a few months away from turning sixty, I carry a few prescriptions, including a B vitamin supplement, called Foltx.

Well, that’s the one that deflated the party balloon for when they examined them you could see a heart on the pill. “Ecstasy,” they said. I have never taken it and couldn’t tell you the difference between a hit of ecstasy and Excedrin PM. My vices these days consist of boat drinks, beer, wine and the occasional hot fudge sundae. I hadn’t even opened the bottle, because my secretary had made a mistake and had sent the wrong prescription. I don’t use Foltx any more.

I knew Foltx was a vitamin supplement not a love drug. I paid the fine, gathered my bags and my friends and as soon as they opened that door, I walked, rather rapidly towards my plane and flew out.

In Toulon, the stern faced authorities couldn’t take the truth as the simple answer to a few simple questions, trying to turn vitamins into ecstasy. In these days and times, the truth sadly gets lost in the gossip at an alarming rate.

In the end, I will just chalk it up as being something that will happen if you have an adventurous soul and live a nomad life. I will, as my old hero Mark Twain put it, be “lighting out into the territory”. The great old humorist Lord Richard Buckley used to say in one of his routines that humor is the absence of terror and that terror is the absence of humor. It seems there are too many people in the world intent on building fences, not bridges between cultures and fueling misinformation with heightened suspicions and senseless interrogations. I never was, nor do I ever intend to answer to or become one of those people. I will take my cue from Lord Buckley and keep on singing and laughing. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

On October 10th, the New York Post ran a story detailing Buffett’s statement and denial of having Ecstasy: “Buffett Rips Drug-Dumb French”.

In another article, Buffett described the situation as both “amusing and frightening.” “They hauled me into the interrogation room, and I figured I was going to jail. They were not kidding around.”

The misunderstanding was cleared up and Buffett was cleared to leave the country with only a fine for not carrying his prescription. He was, however, disappointed by erroneous press reports about the incident.

“The great thing about it is I was totally innocent,” he said.

Buffett said the incident sparked some song ideas, including “Too Long in Toulon” and “Bad News Can Spoil Your Breakfast,” the latter inspired by an e-mail from Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

Buffett’s sister Lucy, owner of LuLu’s at Homeport restaurant, posted her comments about the incident on her website. Click here to read.