A cross-party proposal to legalize cannabis in France

It seems that the more the government's position has hardened on the subject, the more MPs propose legalizing cannabis in France. This time, a cross-party proposal was tabled yesterday by LFI MP Eric Coquerel in an attempt to push forward the legalization of cannabis in France.

Soberly entitled «Proposition de loi relative à la lutte contre le commerce illégal de drogues», the text is co-signed by 13 left-wing MPs (LFI, PS, Libertés et territoires group...), 2 LREM, Jean-Baptiste Moreau and Patrick Vignal, and 1 MoDem.

https://twitter.com/ericcoquerel/status/1397147183397355520

A previous legalization proposal was tabled and rejected in April by MP François-Michel Lambert, co-signatory of the new initiative. The text, however, was the same than the one already submitted by Noël Mamère in 2017 before his retirement from political life or than the one tabled by LFI deputies in 2018 or the one tabled by the same François-Michel Lambert in 2019, each time to the same fate.

Outline of the proposal

After recalling the failure of cannabis prohibition and related repression in France, the proposed law outlines a potential future system for regulating cannabis:

• the sale and use of cannabis will no longer be penalized up to a possession threshold and THC level set by the state, and will be reserved for adults only
• a regulatory body, the Autorité de l'encadrement de la production et d'exploitation du cannabis (AEPEC), will be entrusted with a monopoly on licenses and controls for production and distribution, as well as licenses for the retail sale of cannabis and cannabis products
• sales would take place in specialized cannabis boutiques
• state-controlled legalization will be organized within the framework of international cooperation with other legal producing and exporting countries, such as Morocco.
• development of the entire chain, from production to sales, processing and distribution, encouraging non-capitalist forms of economic organization such as Cannabis Social Clubs
• self-cultivation of a maximum of five plants per household will no longer be penalized

During his presentation, Eric Coquerel admitted, however, that in the face of opposition from the Interior and President Emmanuel Macron, the legalization of cannabis had virtually no chance of succeeding for the time being. «It won't happen under this mandate», he agreed, but «I believe that the next mandate may be the opportunity to pass a law along these lines».