When it comes to CBD, the French often put the cart before the weed

• On Monday, the Council of State lifted the ban on the sale of products derived from CBD.

• It was enough to put parts back into the controversy machine.

  Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin notably spoke out on Tuesday morning to denounce a decision he "regrets".

• The CBD crystallizes the tensions and it seems that every Frenchman has an opinion on the question... often more moralizing than political or health.

The CBD is like the selection of Karim Benzema in the France team: many are unaware of the ins and outs, but many still have an opinion on it. So when the Council of State, this Tuesday, again authorized the sale of products derived from CBD, it was all the French who were authorized to comment. Tongues loosened and everyone put forward their little idea. But why ? Quite simply because "the imagination of drugs is very present in France, and even more with cannabis: it refers to more fantasies and preconceived ideas than heroin or ecstasy for example", develops Henri Bergeron , research director at the CNRS and author of 

(La Découverte, 2009).

Unlike hard drugs, cannabis "is much more part of everyday life and society, in addition to referring to the imagination of insecurity in difficult neighborhoods", continues the expert, interviewed by

. In fact, when the subject comes back on the table, it's hard not to see the controversy swell. Asked about France Inter this Tuesday morning, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin himself released the assuring sulphate "regret" the choice of the Council of State. “In general, all substances that come under cannabis, drugs, are very bad for your health. We did not increase the price of tobacco to ten euros for us to accept the legalization, the decriminalization of cannabis, ”he said, surely he too imbued with the famous clichés.

“In France, drugs have everything of a partisan positioning”

And this reasoning “has nothing scientific, but all of a political cursor,

in an election year”, depicts Henri Bergeron.

For the director of research, the right-wing political parties or those with an eye on this electorate – such as LREM for the presidential election – have no interest in playing the opening on drugs, while their base of voters is fiercely opposed to it. .

“In France, drugs have everything of a partisan position: we are either for or against.

By convictions and not by health argument, ”concludes the author.

The French would thus tend to ignore the increasingly developed scientific literature on cannabis and to bet on morality, often putting the cart before the weed, as Zoë Dubus explains.

“Information on its substances is biased, notes the doctoral student in contemporary history whose research focuses on health policies related to the use of psychotropic drugs.

There is a large focus on singular sordid stories, taken up massively by the media or politicians, but which are more of the order of news items than of the real use by the population.

As a result, "drugs make everyone in France talk because it is a matter of morality, which extremizes the debate and pollutes it with non-scientific considerations".

Requiem for a legislation

science is therefore indeed the great forgotten part of the epidermal debate.

The fault, according to our experts, with a legislation which rests, as one saw previously, on a political and moral posture, much more than scientific.

“The French are positioning themselves vis-à-vis the current law, which crystallizes the tensions.

This legislation not resting on any health basis, it is attacked or defended without calling the scientist.

it only impoverishes the debate, ”laments Zoë Dubus.

And the doctoral student continues: “The more time passes, the more there is scientific consensus on the therapeutic use of certain drugs or the non-dangerousness of certain consumption.

But going back on the legislation would be to admit having been on the wrong track for years, which is impossible.

»

Our two experts recognize it, the scientific reading on this subject, abundant, is complex.

Which can discourage more than one and explain the temptation of moralizing judgment, much more accessible and relaxing.

Zoë Dubus specifies: “Unauthorized substances are less dangerous to health than legal substances, such as alcohol or tobacco.

For comfort, many are tempted to maintain their

so as not to upset their fundamentals.

»

Just listen to Gérald Darmanin again to be convinced, reports Henri Bergeron: “Between CBD, THC, recreational cannabis, it is easy to get lost or mix everything up.

When speaking of the decriminalization of cannabis to evoke the sale of CBD, the Minister of the Interior makes an amalgam and a misinterpretation.

But who will notice?

»

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