Emmanuel Macron wants the payment of fines for drug use to be “ immediate », and that the offenders have the possibility of paying them by credit card as well as in cash.
From Marseille, where he is visiting until Wednesday, the President of the Republic told our colleagues to Provence, Sunday evening, that it was becoming urgent to fight more firmly against the traffic, but especially against the consumption of drugs in itself. His solution? Better equip police officers, to allow consumers to pay their fixed fines as soon as they are caught.
Thousands of payment terminals distributed to police
The observation makes Emmanuel Macron jump. Only 35% of fixed fines for drug use are honored. ” What we have found is that as payment is made by telepayment between 45 and 60 days, we have a recovery rate of 35%. And it’s below this average in Marseille, it’s unacceptable “, indignantly the head of state.
Consequence: the President of the Republic asked his Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to prepare a decree which will have to be ready by the end of the summer, to gain in efficiency on the payment of fines.
And the efforts have already begun, since 5,000 payment terminals have been distributed to agents. The idea? Ensure that immediate payment by credit card or cash becomes the rule.
Tap on wallet
” We cannot deplore drug trafficking if we have users “, explains Emmanuel Macron, who intends to make the latter feel guilty, in that they ” nurture networks and that they have a de facto complicity “.
Hitting the wallet, and somehow putting the knife to consumers’ throats the moment they are caught on the spur of the moment seems like the right solution, according to the government. And the trip to Marseille, a stronghold of drug trafficking, is a good opportunity to claim it and take action.
In Marseille, a flat-rate payment system was tested in the summer of 2020, before being extended to the whole territory in September of the same year. It would be, according to some of the police, a more effective response to the offense of drug use. Incidentally, it would also make it possible to limit the congestion of the courts.
Source : Provence
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