World Cannabis March 2016

On Saturday May 7, the 15th World Cannabis March will be held in most of France's major cities. Rallies are already planned in Poitiers, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg and Chartres. Any city can still organize a demonstration; all that's needed is a few kind souls to accept the burden of organization. Paris will be the exception to the rule, holding its parade on May 14 at the Place de la Bastille.

For extradited people enjoying tropical sunshine, a rally will be held at 4pm in Manuel Rodriguez Park in Santiago, Chile. At the same time, two demonstrations will take place in Buenos Aires and Mendoza in Argentina, and at 1pm in Mexico City and Asunción in Paraguay. The official French website of the World March for Cannabis even announces rallies in Johannesburg, Jakarta and Tokyo!

For those wishing to take part in the rallies this Saturday, you can obtain information on Facebook or on the website French.

Walking in Chartres: https://www.facebook.com/events/1120961447928313/

The movement's demands

The French demonstration is aimed at denouncing the government's inaction on the subject of hemp and cannabis. While a wind of legalization for medical and recreational use is blowing across America, European countries are still unable to get their hands in the pollen. As a result, European patients in need of cannabis-based treatments have to pay between €15 and €25 per gram, 2 to 4 times more than in Canada. France, meanwhile, is still finding it hard to get interested in the medical properties of cannabis. A case in point is the blockage of Sativex, the only cannabis-based medicine authorized in France but not marketed, due to a disagreement over the selling price between the Ministry of Health and the manufacturer.

Recreational users, on the other hand, are always penalized and denied access to a healthy, regulated product. The illicit trade benefits organized crime and mafia networks, with the consequences we see day after day: violence, terrorist financing, etc.... The march also highlights the lack of consensus between the French medical profession and international scientific advances. American and Israeli research is going from strength to strength the positive effects of cannabinoids on patients, while French doctors still only talk about addictive substances that are dangerous to personal equilibrium.

The French taboo prevents any progress on these issues, which directly affect almost 2 million citizens. While French demonstrations tend to be swept away by the police, the movement is expected to gather several thousand people around the globe. La 2015 World Cannabis Day in France was attended by nearly 3,000 people.

Théo Caillart