a parliamentary report contradicts the strategy of the executive

An arduous task for a member of the majority to impose a debate that the executive does not want to hear about. All the more so when it comes to the consumption of cannabis in France and the final observation poses the need to “Legalize” its use. And this, especially when the head of state, Emmanuel Macron, has just declared the fight against drugs as “The mother of battles” one year from the presidential election.

This dissonant position is carried by the deputy La République en Marche (LRM) Caroline Janvier (Loiret) who presents, Wednesday May 5, the third and last part of the fact-finding mission devoted to “The regulation and impact of the different uses of cannabis” in the National Assembly. After therapeutic cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD), deputies from all parliamentary groups tackled the sensitive subject of so-called recreational cannabis, the consumption of which is reaching staggering figures in France with one million daily consumers and 5 million regular smokers. year round. “We consider today that the path of legalization with state control is the best way to protect the French”, defends Mme January.

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also In 2020, drug seizures remained high but fell

” It does not work “

The arguments are not new but are supported by a hundred hearings carried out in a little over a year and a citizen consultation which brought together 250,000 contributions, one of the most important carried out at the National Assembly. “When we look at the data, what has been done in other countries and the effects of our public policies in the fight against drugs for fifty years, we can see that it does not work”, supports the rapporteur who says she regrets “Political and ideological approaches” which still dominate today on drugs.

The admissions of the powerlessness of the public authorities to stem the increasing consumption of cannabis and its deleterious effects on health and safety are through the 300 pages of this parliamentary report. Lack of prevention policies, saturation of judicial systems, excessive mobilization of law enforcement agencies… The general rapporteur of this fact-finding mission, Jean-Baptiste Moreau (LRM, Creuse), and one of the most active on the subject LRM side, is him just as severe. “The repressive whole is a total failure, he believes. We have not stopped toughening the law, putting more law enforcement advantages on drug trafficking and, in the end, we have become the biggest consumers of cannabis in Europe. So to explain even today that we will remain in the status quo and mobilize more police forces, this is no longer possible. ”

You have 62.32% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.