Paris (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron calls, in an interview with Le Figaro on Sunday evening, to "launch a major national debate on drug consumption" and to "give no respite to drug traffickers" in order to "reduce delinquency".

"France has become a country of consumption and therefore, we must break this taboo, launch a major national debate on drug consumption and its deleterious effects," said the Head of State, on the eve of a trip to Montpellier on the theme of everyday safety.

Because "those who take drugs - and this concerns all social categories - must understand that not only are they endangering their health, but that they also feed the biggest trafficking. We roll a joint in his living room and in the end we feed the most important source of insecurity… ”, he adds.

Emmanuel Macron recognizes that drug trafficking "explodes" and "forms the economic matrix of violence in our country".

"Eradicating them by all means has become the mother of battles, since drugs innervate certain separatist networks but also everyday delinquency, including in small towns so far spared. To give drug traffickers no respite, it is is to reduce delinquency everywhere ", he underlines.

He says the government is moving "into high gear" with the objective of "harassing traffickers and dealers".

"Of the 4,000 deal points listed recently, more than 1,000 punch operations have been carried out in recent weeks. And every day, we close a deal point. Go see in the neighborhoods how life changes!", according to him.

He adds that "70,000 fixed tort fines have been drawn up since September".

"It means something clear: if you get caught as a consumer, you know that you are going to have to pay and that you are not going to escape it. It changes the balance of power," he explains.

According to him, "to say that hashish is innocent is more than a lie": "Cognitively, the effects are disastrous. How many young people, because they start to smoke in college, completely drop out of the school system and spoil their chances? And I'm not even talking about the effects of sliding to harder drugs. "

© 2021 AFP