Emmanuel Macron calls for «a major national debate on drug use».»

In an interview with Le Figaro posted online on Sunday, April 18, 2021, Emmanuel Macron calls for «a major national debate on drug use and its deleterious effects». The aim is to «raise awareness» from consumers to dealers.

Eradicating trafficking and penalizing consumers

Defending the actions of his government, Emmanuel Macron recalled the «anti-stupid' triptych put in place since his investiture:

• step up action against drug trafficking, with the Chrisophe Castaner's Plan Stup, and the harassment of deal points
• overhaul of OCRTIS, mired in scandal of its cannabis imports, in Ofast
• introduction of the fixed fine system devised under Gérard Collomb and implemented by Gérald Darmanin

For Emmanuel Macron, there is no record to defend, apart from figures attesting to police activity, without specifying a possible effect on consumption or trafficking: 1,000 operations on drug dealing points in recent weeks and a mixed success for cannabis fines which has been awarded 70,000 times since last September.

But if cannabis users in France «feed the biggest traffic» and «the most important source of insecurity», decriminalization is not a solution, as it would result in a «publicity coup» for «hashish».

For Emmanuel Macron, the solution lies in relentless action against major trafficking, small-scale dealing and street use.

France, which has become a «consumer country», will not relax its «efforts in this area», in particular to prevent young people from «dropping out of the school system altogether and wasting their chances» and a slide «towards harder drugs», the famous escalation theory initiated by by American supporters of Prohibition in the 1930s and scientifically refuted since the 1970s.