“It’s a collective responsibility”: Emmanuel Macron closes the door to the decriminalization of narcotics

2023-06-27 06:55:07

“We cannot deplore the children who are killed in the neighborhoods, the economy and the violence that goes with narcotics and glorify the recreational consumption of narcotics! ” declared Emmanuel Macron during his speech before the various police and justice services, on the construction site of the Baumettes 3 penal establishment. “If there are more shops, it is because there are more clients. The customers are those who can afford this drug. It is a collective responsibility,” continued the Head of State.

It seems that the president has chosen his hobbyhorse. Because within the majority, the subject divides, and from the beginning. If Gérald Darmanin has made the subject of the fight against drug trafficking the “mother of battles”, by firmly opposing the legalization of cannabis, others are not of the same opinion. Starting with LREM MP Caroline Janvier, who co-signed in May 2021 with her colleague Jean-Baptiste Moreau (LREM) a 300-page report on so-called “recreational” cannabis, which highlights the “failure” of politics. repressive. The text insists on “the hypocrisy of tough speeches” and advocates the legalization of cannabis to “regain control” from traffickers and better protect minors.

Jacket reversal

Then Minister of the Economy, Emmanuel Macron affirmed in 2016 on France Inter that the legalization of cannabis had “interests” and presented a “form of efficiency” in terms of the fight against the “financing of occult networks”. But during the presentation of his program at the dawn of his second term, the French president did an about-face, saying he was “not in favor” of the legalization of cannabis. On RTL last October, the Minister of Health François Braun positioned himself on the same line, saying that it is “dangerous for health”. Same story as Gérald Darmanin, when he said on the LCI set: “Drugs are shit, we’re not going to legalize this shit”.

“It’s never nice to see people who take drugs, because they feed and legitimize (…) this parallel economy” affirms Emmanuel Macron during his speech, before continuing: “We must be intractable by remembering that it is is a whole. We cannot find certain practices sympathetic if we then deplore the consequences”. The Head of State thus reaffirms his policy of zero tolerance on the subject, which he had mentioned during his second campaign, by proposing in particular a “major national debate on drug consumption”.

“The State must play its role of regulator”

The report carried by Caroline Janvier and Jean-Baptiste Moreau is in charge of the government’s prohibition policy, while recalling the harmful nature of the drug: “We have never said that cannabis was not dangerous”, defends LREM deputy Jean-Baptiste Moreau. “But you can’t have a prevention policy on a product that is totally banned. The State must play its role of regulator”. A discourse shared by the conclusions of the work carried out by the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese), a consultative body which has self-assigned the subject. According to these, nearly one in two adults has used cannabis in their lifetime. “The primary objective is to be guided by public health objectives,” said Florent Compain, one of the two rapporteurs of the opinion. The Cese recommends legalization, in order to “weaken and dry up as much as possible the illegal traffic”, according to him.

The speech by the President of the Republic comes as a petition has been launched since Sunday on the platform of the National Assembly. A collective of associations including Doctors of the World and the Addiction Federation is on the initiative, asking for the abolition of criminal penalties for drug use. The latter are “an obstacle to access to care, prevention and risk reduction,” said Marie Öngün-Rombaldi, member of the Collective for a New Drug Policy (CNPD), to AFP. origin of the petition, and general delegate of the Addiction Federation. A proposal which will be entrusted to one of the eight permanent commissions of the Palais-Bourbon if it reaches 100,000 signatures, or even debated in public session if it is signed by more than 500,000 people from at least 30 departments.