During the holidays, the Vrai du Faux cell offers you a series of factual answers to approximate statements on the major themes that generally animate meals with family or friends. This Wednesday: cannabis.
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There is nothing better than a good debate around the legalization of cannabis to ignite your New Year’s meals. While several countries around us, such as Germany, are preparing to take the leap, this subject continues to strongly divide in France.
What to answer if we are told that France is both the most repressive country and the most cannabis consumer?
You can answer that it is true in both cases. About one in two French people (45%) have smoked cannabis, which is much more than the European average, according to the latest report from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. There are around five million cannabis users in our country, 900,000 of whom are daily smokers.
We are also “champions” on repression. While in the majority of European countries, the use of cannabis is not prohibited by law, it is the case in France. Only seven countries in Europe, including ours, consider its use a criminal offense, which can therefore lead to a prison sentence. For a year, France has also generalized the fixed fine. A fine of 200 euros which mainly targets cannabis smokers.
What to answer if we are told that the drug dealers will not comply with legalization because they can earn up to 100,000 euros per day?
This figure comes of a declaration of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin on franceinfo. You can answer that on that day the Minister of the Interior exaggerated the income of the dealers. According to a 2016 study by the French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the estimated incomes of lookouts and sellers vary between 90 and 150 euros per day. We go up to 1,500 euros for a right arm. Knowing that the report points out that almost no one in this environment works full time in quotes. Clearly, apart from those who are at the head of drug networks where large sums of money circulate, the dealers who deal with local trafficking are very far from 100,000 euros per day.