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Latest update: 16/06/2011
- drugs - France - law
Is France's cannabis debate stuck in a cul-de-sac?
A new parliamentary report recommends legalising the cultivation and consumption of cannabis in France. But one leading critic of international drug policy doubts that the debate will inspire a sea change in French policy.
By Tony Todd (text)
The issue of legalising cannabis is once again making headlines in France following the release of a parliamentary report on Wednesday recommending that the drug should be subject to “controlled legalisation”.
The report, compiled by an opposition working party, recommends that the cultivation and sale of marijuana should become a state-controlled activity, like the sale of alcohol and tobacco, and concluded that the government could not continue to “advocate the illusion of abstinence”.
The report has some support within the opposition Socialist Party, although two Socialist candidates for next year’s presidential campaign, Ségolène Royal and Manuel Valls, have spoken out against the proposal.
The conservative ruling UMP party has largely rejected the findings, the party consensus being that legalising or decriminalising cannabis would increase the number of users and that traffickers would move into distributing harder drugs.
French inflexibility
According to a leading critic of international drug control policies, the legalisation debate -- which is raised in France regularly -- is unlikely to gain much ground because of France’s inherently inflexible, top-down political system.
Ethan Nadelmann, founder of the US-based Drug Policy Alliance, welcomed the report, but was not optimistic that France would adopt the kinds of policies that have led to decriminalisation in countries like Holland and Portugal.
In Switzerland and Germany, he argued, local initiatives had paved the way for a change in political attitudes. While drugs remain illegal in these countries, addiction is often seen more as a health problem than a criminal activity.
Not so in France, Nadelmann said, where policymaking tends to come from the higher political echelons and where “there is much less opportunity for local innovation and citizen activism”.
Prohibition 'has never worked'
Psychiatrist Alain Rigaud, head of the French National Association for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, said he believed prohibition had proved to be counterproductive and called for the debate to be taken seriously.
“Prohibition does not work and has never worked,” he said. “Decriminalisation does not augment consumption -- that is a mistaken assumption made by politicians who advocate prohibition.”
“Look at the Netherlands -- cannabis is decriminalised there and consumption has not exploded," Rigaud said. "Portugal, where one is allowed to carry cannabis for personal consumption, has one of the lowest consumption rates in Europe.”
France, on the other hand, is one of Europe’s biggest cannabis consumers. It also has some of the toughest anti-drug laws. The country has 1.2 million regular cannabis users (smoking more than 10 times a month) and 3.9 million occasional users (at least once a year). That figure has quadrupled since 1990.
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Comments (7)
The American Outlook..
Here in the US marijuana is extremely illegal, possession of an amount under an ounce is a misdemeanor that will cost you several hundred to thousands of dollars, possession of over an ounce is considered a felony and can land you in prison. Selling said marijuana is always a felony and WILL land you in prison (for up to 15 years). But.. it's still very widespread and easy to obtain. The most used drug besides alchohol amongst high school age people in the country.
Pretty much all that the law against marijuana has accomplished has been clogging our legal system with petty drug offenses, costing individual states huge amounts of money, and putting otherwise honest citizens in prison. But the weed is still here.
IMO, the anti marijuana campaign is a monumental waste of time and dollars. Legalize it, tax it, and reduce our staggering government deficite.
Pot Prohibition
There is no higher echelon to tell you if you may use or grow pot. Politicians would have you believe other wise. Take control of your freedom now! No one has the power to make "laws" against nature or what God has so freely given.
Drugs like yesterday.
Drugs like yesterday. Cannabis issue in France,
deceptive ruse
The ENTIRE "war on drugs" is a deceptive ruse.
While all sorts of "public officials" wring their hands about the percieved damage and / or health risks of pot, and others ring their moral churchbells,and invent mindless "just say no" BS, the WHOLE thing comes down to MONEY and POWER. Ever since William Randolph Hearst managed to whip up that part of the country (everything west of the Mississippi River) whose newspaper readers he influenced, with his anti-Mexican propaganda, everyone who can has climbed onto this bandwagon. So what has happened as a result? We have created a HUGE industry made up of all sorts of "drug warriors" who all are making a good living at the expense of others misery-and I am NOT talking about any percieved misery associated with the use of the drugs themselves, but rather by all the social misery caused by the prohabition of such drugs--not to neglect to mention that nasty little "war" on our Southern Border that recently has claimed over 34,000 lives.
People WANT these drugs. Why? because they work! And what people want-they will have.
Big PHARMA is constantly trying to develop synthetic substances (such as synthetic opioids) to capitalize on this desire. If they could synthesize marijuana, patent it, and sell it as some sort of "pill", believe me-they would do it in a heartbeat. It would all be "legal", and the government would be as on-board as they are with all the other snake oil that this industry pushes on the public through it's network of doctors and "free samples".
It's all a scam. It has been a scam from the beginning, and will continue to be so as long as there remains standing ANY law which seeks to prohibit a person from using whatever they want.
Crime?? No problem--they will just employ more cops and other "warriors", and the human race continues to eat itself. What a sicko situation.
Its all very well to pass Medical Marijuana laws in various states--at least that is an indication from the wimpy electorate that they want to see some change, but NONE of these laws affect the 500 pound gorilla in the room-the DEA and the numerous federal and state agencies whose law trumps the states', and have huge vested interests in maintaining the status quo.
It would be an interesting project to put together some figures relating to just how many "good citizens" make their living from this outrage, but when you add up all the members of the DEA, the ONDPC, the prison-industrial complex workers, the lobiests from Big PHARMA, etc etc-the figure has to be in the millions.
If drugs suddenly became legal, all these folks would have to find HONEST jobs. No small task. Remember-this issue is world-wide. The money and power are enormous. Don't hold your breath for any changes anytime soon.
those pushing prohibition
those pushing prohibition made a budget for themselves out of much needed tax ,that's why they avoid evidence based , when the aggravating side effects become the new notion and they out way that of the very first notion, the result is corruption by default through paradox paradigm
canabbis
FRANCE SHOULD DO WHAT HOLLAND DOES ALL PROFITS FROM IT GOES TO THE GOVERNMENT THEY WILL NEVER STOP PEOPLE SMOKING IT SO THEY MAY AS WELL PROFIT FROM IT TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE WHO ARE HEAVILY TAXED I HOPE THE UK AND OTHERS WILL DO THE SAME CANNABIS IS NO WORSE THAN ALCOHOL
Simplistic about legalization
There is a fundamental difference between decrimalization and legalization, and it is quite disturbing that a debate such as this is not able to reflect this adequately. To reduce penalties has been common in Europe for long time, and most countries already have a very pragmatic handling of cannabis use and possession.
The Netherlands which correctly has de facto legalized consumption and purchase of cannabis is currently scaling back their experiment. It is also a fact that when the coffee shops were growing in the 80s consumption grew significantly. This is recognised by leading researchers globally. Nobody thinks "everyone" will start using if it was more available, but it is a scientific fact that availability is of immense significance for drug consumption. If one looks at cities such as Amsterdam where most of the coffee shops are located you will also find a far higher prevalence of cannabis use than in the rest of the country even when excluding tourists. The bottom line is that the Dutch experiment did not manage to keep drug consumption any lower than others in Europe, in fact in Amsteradm it is far higher. The majority of people seeking treatment for a drug problem do so for cannabis - in the Netherlands. The fact that it is our most widely used drug and not least among our young should make people think twice about making it more available.
THe thing that legalizers do not seem to consider is that if regulated one would still not want to sell it to minors (below 18) and to problem drug users. Much of the problem of enforcement and illegality would then still remain.
With regard to Portugal, a lot of myths persists. Decriminalization (not legalization) did not cause any measurable results. Even the Portuguese national drug coordinator and the ministry will now admit that "at least decriminalization did not make things worse". In fact countries such as France and Italy has a more significant reduction in the use of cannabis amoung young people than Portugal since 2001, according to the authorative ESPAD survey.
France has historically had a far higher prevalence of cannabis than Portugal that has been at the far lower end in Europe. However when France and many other countries in Europe has experienced a significant drop in prevalence since 2000, Portugals consumption among 16 year olds has hardly changed.
French regular use (used during the past 30 days) was in 1999 at 22 percent of 16 year olds. In 2007 this was at 15%. Portugal while at 5% in 1999 stands at 6% in 2007.
THe campaigners therefore fails to see that French consumption has been rapidly falling, while "liberal countries" such as the Czech and Dutch has during the same decade seen a rise or stagnation in consumption.
It is a fundamental worry that if cannabis was more available to adults it would increase consumption among minors as is abundantly clear for the case of alcohol. Alcohol sale to minors is prohibited but still alcohol is the far most consumed "drug" among minors. That is a massive concern in all European countries, even in the South - we do not need to risk another public health burden.
Cannabis is proven harmful to the body and affects behaviour and social relations, performance in school etc. Young people that are biologically, socially and psychology in development are far more vulnerable to drugs such as cannabis than adults. They need protection and that is our responsibility.
Anders Ulstein
secretary general
EURAD, Europe against Drugs
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