French Mayor Asks for Cannabis Referendum
French president Emmanuel Macron has revealed intentions to hold referendums on various subjects. Could cannabis be one of them? Grenoble’s ecologist mayor Éric Piolle is calling for a referendum on the decriminalization or legalization of cannabis. Piolle believes that repression methods fail to deliver results in ending drug trafficking. He stirred controversy recently by commenting that authorities need to find compromises with drug dealers.
France is the biggest cannabis consumer country in Europe. French authorities spend huge amounts of money for law enforcement on cannabis - around US$600 million every year. More than 100,000 people are thought to go through the criminal justice system on cannabis-related charges every year as well.
The French president has the political instruments and power to call for and organize a referendum. Macron has actually considered calling for referendums in early 2025 on several subjects and hearing what the people have to say. The results on any referendum question will need to be validated by the French Constitutional Council.
Could There Be a Referendum on Cannabis in France?
Éric Piolle has been mayor of Grenoble since 2014. The city of 156,000 inhabitants is plagued by drug trafficking, street violence and crime. Piolle has already spoken out several times in favor of legalizing cannabis.
Piolle was criticized last year by French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau for not having an efficient network of remote surveillance cameras in the city, although there are more than hundred cameras installed all around Grenoble.
“In the space of the last 6 months, we have three examples of pathetic, dramatic events that have shown their ineffectiveness in terms of deterrence and intervention. We’ve had a street cleaner shot dead in front of cameras, a 15-year-old at a drug-dealing point shot dead in front of a camera, and we’ve had a robbery in a place where there were cameras,” Piolle said as a guest on France Info on Thursday, January 24.
While Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin are all about repression, Éric Piolle wants to decriminalize cannabis: “I propose that the President of the Republic take the initiative of holding a referendum on the subject. Let's move towards a referendum on decriminalization or control of production, legalization...”
Éric Piolle sparked an uproar by proposing to find compromises with drug dealers: “We have a collective responsibility. We have to fight fiercely against drug trafficking, and we have to fight for the emancipation of young people, offering them solutions. We have to support parents. We have to find a modus vivendi with the dealers.”
The mayor of Grenoble further noted that prohibition is a failure. “Sarkozy, Valls, Darmanin, Retailleau: one minister of the interior after another has made drug trafficking their media fund of trade. Rather than legalize cannabis like Germany, they prefer to insist on a repressive approach that has been failing for years,” Piolle wrote on X.
Soft Secrets France contributed to this report.
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