French Green Senators Want to Decriminalise the Use of All Drugs.
The senators are inspired by Portuguese legislation.
The French Green group in the Senate have presented a bill for the decriminalisation of the use of all drugs. The senators have been inspired by Portuguese legislation where trafficking remains prohibited but drug use is not punished.
The bill is inspired by the Portuguese model. Since 2001, in Portugal, drug users are no longer treated as delinquents but as sick people. The senators are calling for the decriminalization of all drugs including cannabis, cocaine or heroin...
Most of the bills for legalization presented in recent years to the Senate or the Assembly concerned only cannabis with the legalization of production and the entire sector. These proposals were of course not approved, the majority of parliamentarians being opposed to any form of legalization or decriminalization. With this new proposal, the Green senators have a different approach. The Portuguese example is generally considered positive.
Greens senator Anne Souyris presented the new bill this Monday, January 27. The proposal was presented the day before the Senate examined the transpartisan bill on drug trafficking.
The senators note that France is a country where large quantities of illicit drugs are consumed: "France has the largest number of cannabis consumers in Europe: nearly half (44.8%) of French people aged 15 to 64 have already used it. Similarly, cocaine use is growing steadily in France. It is among the highest in Europe: 9.4% of adults had already tried it in 2023 compared to 1.8% in 2000."
A total ban on use does not protect users: "In addition to its ineffectiveness on consumption, the policy of repression endangers the health of populations and exposes them to greater risks. Indeed, criminalizing drug use hinders the implementation of risk and harm reduction measures, with dramatic socio-health consequences."
According to the group of green senators, the current legislation is ineffective: "The objective of this bill is not to say "long live drugs" but to ask how we can implement a policy that works on the issue of drugs. The police and the entire judicial system supposed to fight drug trafficking are 80% mobilized against simple users. ยป
The Green senators propose to decriminalize consumption by defining maximum quantities: "Our law proposes to decriminalize simple use, with the idea that it is for personal consumption, with a maximum quantity that corresponds to the use. The idea is to go before a commission voluntarily for dependent people and to be able to have access to psychological, social or addiction support and not only resort to the therapeutic injunction which, as health professionals remind us, is dysfunctional."
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