• A parliamentary report presented this Wednesday underlines the ineffectiveness of the repressive policy carried out in France to fight against the consumption and trafficking of cannabis.

  • Its rapporteur, LREM deputy from Loiret, Caroline Janvier, believes that it is necessary to put in place a "supervised legalization" of this product.

  • While the Head of State and his Minister of the Interior keep reiterating their opposition to this measure, the elected representative hopes that the report can serve as a "support" for the debate in view of the presidential election.

A failure "just as undeniable as it is worrying". The 280-page report, presented this Wednesday to the Assembly, is categorical: the repressive policy pursued by France since 1970 "is expensive and excessively mobilizes the police without contributing, even marginally. , to the reduction of the use and trafficking of cannabis ”. To arrive at this observation, the deputies of the parliamentary information mission on cannabis interviewed, for three months, a hundred specialists. Thematic rapporteur, the elected LREM of Loiret Caroline Janvier now considers it necessary to legalize in a "supervised" way this product consumed daily by 1.4 million French people.

"This is the best way to regain control, to protect the health of consumers, especially young people, and to ensure the safety of the French," she insisted to 

20 Minutes

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While the Minister of the Interior keeps repeating his opposition to such a measure, Caroline Janvier assures that “the current situation presents more dangers, more risks” than if cannabis were legalized.

"The substances are not controlled, the mode of production and distribution favors crime and violence", explains the rapporteur.

Moreover, the sanctions do not seem to dissuade French consumers, since their number is the highest within the European Union.

"Change model"

The report, which recognizes that "cannabis is not a trivial product", brushes aside accusations of "laxity" related to legalization. "Effectively preventing young people from accessing cannabis, carrying out a real prevention policy in schools and with families, quickly and truly taking charge of problematic consumption: all this now requires a change of model", underlines the document, adding that it is necessary to "create the conditions for a real effectiveness of public policies".

Tomorrow we present the report on "recreational" #cannabis in a press conference at @AssembleeNat at 2pm.



It is the fruit of long, rigorous and cross-partisan work for which 103 people were heard during 34 hearings and round tables.

#DirectAN pic.twitter.com/EFPDtPP5lx

- Caroline Janvier (@CarolineJanvier) May 4, 2021

Gérald Darmanin's priority is to fight against trafficking "no longer makes much sense" for many police and gendarmes, explains Caroline Janvier.

They observe, often disillusioned, that "consumption increases and that the dismantled networks are replaced in the hours which follow".

Its report underlines in particular that “an abyss has been created between the political discourse, with a voluntarist tone, and the social reality of the affected urban areas, where violence and despair dominate.

"" Even more than the lack of results of prohibition, it is the persistence of such reductive discourse that surprises at a time when the evidence of a change is needed.

"

"A French model"

To break the deadlock, Caroline Janvier proposes to create "a French model", halfway "between a very regulated model like in Uruguay or Quebec, and a very liberalized model like in Colorado". The report lists several issues to be resolved, such as "self-cultivation, advertising, the level of taxation, the price per gram, the mode of distribution". “Depending on the responses provided,” she tells us, “we do not resolve the same issues, whether they are health, safety or economic. "

Cannabis could in any case become an interesting financial windfall for the state.

According to the estimates of the Economic Analysis Council, quoted in the report, "the tax revenues generated by the legal cannabis market represent some 2 billion euros per year for a market of around 500 tonnes, and 2.8 billion euros for a market of 700 tonnes ”.

Legal jobs in the sector "could induce social contributions for a total annual amount of between 250 and 530 million euros, or even up to 740 million euros in the high hypothesis of 80,000 jobs created".

A support

And even if Emmanuel Macron seems reluctant to change his policy vis-à-vis cannabis, the member wants her report to serve as "support at the time of the presidential election".

"We will do everything possible to ensure that the subject of cannabis takes the place it deserves, that it is approached from the angle of the effectiveness of public policy," says Caroline Janvier.

In the meantime, the deputies of the information mission on cannabis wish to take part in the “great national debate on drug consumption and its deleterious effects” announced by the president, “by participating in public meetings for example”.

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