France to register cannabis users for 10 years

A fixed fine for the simple use of cannabis, designed to «crack down on drug use effectively and evenly across the country», is still not in place. But its implications now go beyond the simple sanction of simple use.

A order published on April 14, 2020 extends the automated control file to all fixed fine procedures, both contraventional and delictual, originally designed to punish traffic offences. Fixed-rate fines enable an offence to be detected and immediately punished by a fine.

In the case of simple use of cannabis, the fine does not decriminalize cannabis. Simple use remains an offence punishable by prison. The recent decree also places the offence in an «automated control system», the CA file, for a period of 10 years.

An invasion of privacy?

Two points in particular caught the attention of drug law specialist Yann Bisiou in the May issue of AJ Pénal: the lack of guarantees as to who can access the data collected, and the major restrictions on the right to erasure.

Who has access to this data? Judicial, military and police authorities, as well as civil servants authorized to report traffic violations. But access to the data could potentially be much wider. The CA file can in fact be consulted by car rental companies or companies providing their employees with cars. The data is supposed to be compartmentalized, but the reality is more complex, with access to the files via a simple password that can easily be exchanged.

Can you imagine being refused a car rental for a past offence? Or «narcotics» checks motivated by a license plate registered for «use»?

Yann Bisiou responds: «The risk concerns the watertightness of the data. There's no control over access, and we can't clean up the database.»

So what recourse is there? «The first cannabis user to receive a lump-sum fine has every interest in contesting the fine, from every point of view: its principle, the data file, the length of time the data is kept, everything is open to challenge.»

Yann Bisiou also points to the accumulation of files. From July 2020, a cannabis user caught breaking the law will be able to enter the CA file, the TAJ file (Traitement des antécédents judiciaires) and the Osiris file, created under the OCRTIS for trafficking offences but now extended to ILS (drug-related offences), and his or her offence will be recorded on his or her criminal record.

France has already been condemned twice by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). for the STIC file, the predecessor of TAJ, and for FAED (automated fingerprint file). Three's the charm with the CA file?