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Emphasizing the “inefficiency” of the measures concerning cannabis in France at present, in particular its criminalization, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese) recommends the supervised legalization of this so-called “soft” drug.
Should cannabis be legalized? Faced with this debate which regularly comes to the fore in the news, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese), an advisory body of civil society where associations and unions sit, positions itself in favor of the legalization of this drug.
A position following the “failure” of current policies
This Tuesday, January 24, the Cese is therefore positioning itself on the question through a draft opinion submitted to the vote. The project, therefore presented during the plenary assembly, was adopted with 87 votes for, 25 votes against and 16 abstentions.
In front of “the bitter failure of the policy followed for fifty years“according to its president, Jean-François Naton, the Cese recalls first of all that drugs”strongly mobilizes the police and justice services, without any real effect on the scale of the traffic and the level of consumption which remains the highest in Europe”.
Ineffective preventive actions
The Cese also stresses that “from a public health point of view, the preventive actions carried out are generally ineffective, particularly among young consumers who are increasingly exposed to uncontrolled products“. This is why it suggests the framed authorization of the production, distribution and consumption of this psychoactive plant.
Supervised production and distribution channels
The Cese has also created a commission to open the debates, which it considers “often caricatured” on the subject. For one of the rapporteurs, Florent Compain, the idea would be to review the consumption of cannabis, which is currently at “90% of cannabis smoked, the worst of uses” he recalls.
The long-term objective would rather be to create a French production and distribution sector where “the logic of public health takes precedence over profits with a framework for production volumes”.
Remove criminal penalties
In addition to this reform, the Cese pleads for the creation of a specific tax allocated to prevention policies and recommends no longer penalizing the use and cultivation of cannabis for personal use. On the contrary, the idea would be to allow individual culture in “collectives”.
At the same time, an experiment with medical cannabis restricted to a few pathologies conducted by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (Ansm) was extended by one year in France.
Finally, remember that, according to figures from the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT). Cannabis is the most popular drug in France.