open a real debate on drugs

Editorial. Five days after the murder of Brigadier Eric Masson during a drug control in Avignon, the government has promised to toughen the sentences against the attackers of the police. An anti-terrorism bill was put forward the day after the assassination of an official in Rambouillet. Likewise, the executive announces a modification of the rules of penal irresponsibility, following the emotion aroused by the legal impasse after the murder of Sarah Halimi. This desire to respond with a law to each shock generated by a violent social event contradicts the statements of Emmanuel Macron who, before his election, declared himself hostile to a policy dictated by “The tyranny of events”.

Such a legislative frenzy aims to respond to the anxiety of the population in the context of the campaign for regional elections dominated by the security theme under pressure from the right and the far right. This gear is dangerous because it gives credence to two misconceptions: that according to which the law can regulate everything and that which presents justice as lax. At the next news item in which all the circumstances will not have been anticipated by a text, disappointment is guaranteed, at the risk of reinforcing the “feeling of insecurity”.

The law is not made to respond to the emotion of the moment, even if it is justified. Who can argue that the announced extension of the security sentence for perpetrators of crimes against members of the police would have dissuaded the murderer from Avignon?

Involve elected officials and citizens

While “Security and the fight against terrorism” are considered a priority by 72% of French people, these themes deserve better than a political escalation. It is not only a question of granting the necessary means to the forces of order and justice, but of involving elected officials and citizens. The left, long angelic on the subject, ended up recognizing, in its majority, to which point security is a protection which the weakest lack.

Among the many security issues to be dealt with, that of narcotics appears crucial. Their trafficking finances entire sections of the population in certain neighborhoods, while fueling violence and armaments. In this complex field, a reality is essential: “The failure of the repressive policy pursued for fifty years in terms of both security and public health”. This observation has just been made by a parliamentary information mission on the uses of cannabis. Prohibition does not prevent the French from being the biggest consumers of cannabis in Europe, nor increasingly toxic products from circulating nor organized crime from flourishing.

The phenomenon, which is plaguing society and damaging many young people, deserves more than pre-election chins. The “Great national debate” promised by Emmanuel Macron is a necessity. It is unfortunate that the President of the Republic seemed to shut it down before it even started, by ruling out the decriminalization of cannabis. A hypothesis enlightened by foreign experiences – especially in Portugal – to which Mr. Macron said he was open before his election, and which some right-wing elected officials no longer exclude.

The question of drugs, a stake at the same time societal, health, police force and geopolitics, is not soluble neither in the simplifying slogans nor in the all-repressive one. After years of deadlock, the French are ready for this discussion. All the more reason to hire him as quickly as possible and without taboos.