Legalize cannabis… for public health reasons?
Antoine Léaument, deputy of La France Insoumise (LFI) for Essonne, advocates an approach to narcotics centered on public health rather than repression. For him, “ we must put in place public health policies based on supervised and legal products ”.
In France, around one in two adults has already used cannabis at least once in their life, according to report published in 2019 by the OFDT (French Observatory of Drugs and Addiction).
The LFI MP maintains that legalization would make it possible to better regulate consumption and guarantee safer products for users, while combating illegal trafficking. He takes the Quebec model as an example, where a single company controls sales, with profits reinvested in public health programs.
Doubts persist about the “economic efficiency” of such a decision
On the other hand, Alexis Izard, MP for Essonne and spokesperson for the majority group, Renaissance, considers legalization to be a “fake good idea”. According to him, tax revenues from the legal sale of cannabis, estimated today at 1.5 billion euros, would not be enough to finance the public health policies necessary to deal with the problems of health linked to the consumption of this so-called “soft” drug.
Izard also warns that delinquency could migrate towards stronger drugs if cannabis were to be legalized.
He also expresses concerns about the costs of production and sale, and suggests that the high price of legal cannabis would not deter illegal networks from continuing their activities, with a strong argument: a price up to twice lower.
Legalization of cannabis: European experiences and perspectives for France
In Europe, several countries have already taken steps to legalize or decriminalize cannabis. Germany, for example, recently legalized private consumption and home cultivation, with plans to introduction of Cannabis Social Clubs to supervise production and distribution. The German model does not allow sales to the general public, unlike what is done in certain American states as well as in Canada.
Also note that Malta legalized recreational cannabis in 2021, followed by Luxembourg in 2023. These examples reflect a growing trend in Europe to adopt less repressive policies and more focused on regulation and public health.
