“The big democratic presidential meeting should have been the occasion for a debate on drugs”

Grandstand. Among the subjects carefully avoided during the electoral campaign, that of the policy of prevention and support for legal or illegal drugs is the occasion for one of the greatest evasions of the realities facing the French, especially young people. However, the figures from the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies are cruel and commensurate with this denial: 116,000 preventable deaths per year due to tobacco and alcohol, 1.5 million regular cannabis users, 370,000 people are addicted to online games…

For Marine Le Pen, the cause is heard: the “war on drugs” takes the place of viaticum without even asking the question of its ineffectiveness, widely recognized by the World Health Organization; and the traditional art of living, even alcoholic, justifies the effects of the platform, in the absence of reflection.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Fight against drug trafficking: an assessment of Macron’s five-year term in trompe-l’oeil

We also understand the difficulty that this subject represents for the government and for the outgoing president, because it would force them to recognize the failure of the martial speeches to hide the vacuum of the analysis and the absence of result of the only measurement of the quinquennium in this area: the fixed fine against cannabis users.

Chilly and dated speech

It would also mean recognizing that the policy followed in the fight against alcoholism has been dictated more by the alcohol lobby than by concern for public health. The lack of reflection on the industrial strategies of tobacco companies (heated tobacco [dispositif permettant d’éviter la combustion, présenté comme moins nocif par les industriels]takeover of e-cigarette companies), or shameless marketing for online sports betting, is also glossed over in the name of defending jobs.

This avoidance has a political price. The younger generations are seeing the total gap between cautious and dated speeches and the daily reality of their lives, especially in troubled neighborhoods plagued by the underground economy and the law of dealers. These neighborhoods also voted overwhelmingly for the candidates who proposed the legalization of cannabis, even if, of course, this is not the only reason for their vote. In the same circumstances, the German governing coalition has chosen to be part of a global evolution [elle a annoncé en novembre 2021 qu’elle souhaitait légaliser le cannabis]without arousing rejection from voters, but by attracting young people who finally saw the end of blindness.

You have 52.78% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

source site-27