Shock measures. Deputy LFI Antoine Léaument and the macronist deputy of Ludovic Mendes present this Tuesday, February 18 at the National Assembly, an information report “aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the policy of combating drug trafficking.” It contains several proposals that, if implemented, would radically change the way in which France addresses the problem of narcotics.
The deputies ask to create a “French model for drug regulation” and “take note of the failure of all repressive” in this area.
France has 5 million cannabis consumers every year, of 22 million in the European Union, according to the French Observatory for Addictive Drugs and Trends (OFDT). The participation of young people from 18 to 64 had experienced cocaine increased from 5.6 % in 2017 to 9.4 % in 2023, according to this public interest group.
Therefore, Antoine Léaument and Ludovic Mendes propose to change the paradigm against the “institutional failure” of the fight against drug trafficking in France.
• Legalize recreational cannabis
The flagship measure of its report is the legalization of the use and detention of cannabis “for personal purposes”, also called “recreational”, according to “a model closely regulated by the State”.
“It is not about playing the harmful of this substance, but about offering a pragmatic response,” while cannabis is already very accessible, they explain.
The deputies propose the creation of a “cannabis regulatory authority” responsible for “deliver professional licenses to producers and retailers”, control the standards that restrict the sale, or even “plan production and establish prices.” In the National Game Agency (ANJ) model, it would allow the State to “recover control in a market that today is completely illegal,” said Deputy Ludovic Mendes in BFMTV this Monday.
The two rapporteurs, on the other hand, diverge in certain methods: Antoine Léaument prefers a price established by the State and a prohibition of sales to minors, when Ludovic Mendes favors a solution by the market and a prohibition of the 21 years. However, they accept to give “priority” to “public health”, which must be, among other things, for “specific support for dependent consumers” and “an ambitious prevention policy against young audiences (over 25 years old ) about the dangers of the substance. “
The Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC), an advisory assembly composed of economic, union and associative officials, had made a similar recommendation in 2023, emphasizing that “the French public policies that prohibited cannabis for the” recreational “failure” Recreational. “Other countries, such as Canada, Germany or Malta, have already taken this path.
However, it goes against the line held by certain current ministers. Gérald Darmanin, for example, saw Monday in this proposal of the deputies “a stab given to the company.” “What it will sell in stores will not be of the THC level that consumers use today,” he said outside a trip to Condé-Sur-Sarthe, judging that consumers will continue to profess the illegal market.
• Cocaine, mushrooms … decriminalize below 3 grams
Another important recommendation in the report: the decriminalization of the simple use of narcotics (cocaine, ecstasy/mdma, hallucinogenic fungi, etc.) decriminalization consists in relieving or even eliminating criminal sanctions linked to a crime, where legalization is equivalent to raising the breeding Prohibition itself, summarizes the OFDT.
In their report, Antoine Léaument and Ludovic Mendes believe that “the penalty does not have the expected dissuasive impact on drug use.” “Worse, it contributes to the stigma of the consumer, which is an obstacle to entering a path of care and the most effective prevention policies.”
Therefore, they suggest decriminalization for any detention of less than three grams of narcotics, but divergent in the implementation of this proposal. Antoine Léaument recommends “the passage through the judicial route that allows criminal compositions and care paths” beyond three grams of drugs held. To do this, he proposes the abolition of flat tasas fines (AFD), which allow a criminal sanction to be pronounced in the absence of a trial. Ludovic Mendes proposes to keep AFD for drug possessions between three and six grams and only proposes a legal path.
“It is a weakness of the mind, not saying a betrayal of mind, proposing decriminalization,” he again criticized Gérald Darmanin on Monday.
• Strengthen the fight against trafficking
Parliamentarians also want to strengthen the means assigned to the fight against drug trafficking. They want to increase the judicial workforce dedicated to this issue, within the specialized interregional courts (JIR) and the national jurisdiction against organized crime (Junalco).
The report also recommends strengthening the means to combat the entry of these products in France, generalizing the use of port scanners, for example. “In summary: to do the opposite of what has not worked until today,” summarizes Antoine Léaument in a summary of the report.
Source: BFM TV
