The socialist senator from the Rhône Gilbert-Luc Devinaz, who revealed last September in our columns that he was working on a proposal to legalize cannabis, kept his word. The elected Villeurbannais, accompanied by 43 co-signatories, tabled his cross-partisan bill in the Senate to request a supervised legalization of cannabis.
If the explanatory memorandum prosaically recalls the failure of the last 50 years of prohibition of cannabis in France, qualifying the prohibition as the Maginot line (with a beautiful “borrowing”, on several lines, from an article by Slate 👀), the proposal stands out from the previous ones with a new text, a mixture of Canadian legalization and German proposals for the legalization of cannabis.
What does the senator suggest?
In his proposal, Senator Guess wants the creation of a regulatory agency, the “National Agency for the Control and Management of Cannabis”, placed under the supervision of Health and Agriculture. This Agency would be responsible for issuing licenses for all activities relating to cannabis – producing, processing, transporting, distributing -, controlling the quality of cannabis placed on the market and piloting the prevention and reduction of risks relating to cannabis. .
Cannabis would be produced by farmers who request it, as well as by Cannabis Social Clubs, which are therefore included in the proposal.
In addition to the Clubs, the sale of cannabis would be done in specialized stores, some of which could be equipped with places of consumption like the Dutch coffeeshops. A taxation model is proposed, with a 33% tax and fixed costs depending on the number of units purchased (60€ / 1000 units), with a minimum charge of 350€ for 1000 units. However, the “units” are not clearly defined; it is therefore not specified whether it is grams, eighths or pounds.
Any advertising of cannabis products would be prohibited outside of retail locations.
The sale of cannabis or a cannabis product to a minor is punishable by a fine of €7,500.
If passed, the law would come into force on January 1, 2030, with the Agency responsible, in the meantime, for defining a precise regulatory framework for the cultivation of cannabis, the creation of cannabis associations and the issuance licenses.
A transitional period would be enacted as soon as the law is voted with a decriminalization to 25 grams.
What is missing from the proposal?
The text tabled in the Senate sweeps away most of the objects relating to regulation. However, several points have not been integrated. We think in particular of:
- Self-cultivation: would it be authorized? For how many plants?
- At what age can an adult legally buy or grow cannabis: 18? 21 years old ? 25 years ?
- What about people previously convicted for acts that are no longer reprehensible: would there be a mechanism for automatically erasing criminal records?
- By what mechanisms would regulation channel the living forces of the illegal market into the new legal market?
- Would home delivery of cannabis be allowed?
Faced with the current government conservatism, the parliamentary initiative will have the merit of causing debate on the subject, Senator Devinaz believing that “it’s better than silence”.
