The mayor of Bègles, a small town of 30,000 inhabitants close to Bordeaux, wants to make his city a territory for experimenting with the supervised legalization of cannabis.
Mayor Clément Rossignol Puech’s proposal to experiment with the production, sale and consumption of cannabis in Bègles has its origins in two recent reports: one from the Information Mission on the Uses of Cannabis, which was held to the National Assembly in 2021, and the other to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) in 2023. These two reports came out in favor of a supervised legalization of cannabis.
Convinced of the need to reform the existing legislative framework, the mayor of Bègles sent a letter to the President of the Republic at the beginning of this year, presenting this experimental proposal.
“When I pressed the ‘send’ button, I felt I had done my duty, welcomed the green city councilor last March to Newsweed. It was the first time that I publicly committed to the legalization of cannabis, even if it is a subject that I have known for a long time”.
The mayor says he is motivated by several objectives: to fight against illicit trafficking and the violence associated with it, to unclog the judicial system, to better support users, to curb consumption by young people through quality control and to contribute to regional economic development through the establishment of a new agricultural sector.
🍁 Today, with around fifty personalities from all walks of life, we are mobilizing in @leJDD for a right to local experimentation of the supervised legalization of cannabis!
I’ll explain why in a thread 🧶 ⤵️
[1/5]https://t.co/YrC7KhdGbM
— Clément Rossignol Puech (@clemrossignol) June 4, 2023
To do this, he intends to mobilize the living forces of the nation around his project. A column relayed last weekend in the JDD and signed by around fifty personalities from all walks of life thus calls for “experimenting with a local model for the legalization of cannabis” and co-constructing “a model corresponding to the needs, expectations and capacities to really do for our territories, a local model that really works”, probably comparable to what is already taking place in Switzerland and what is partly planned for Germany.
On Thursday June 15, a round table will be held in Bègles and will involve members of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council, the national secretary of the Syndicat de la Magistrature, addictologists and doctors, as well as a CBD producer. This event, open to all, aims to outline the desirable outlines of a French model of regulated legalization of the production, sale and consumption of cannabis.
All information is available on the town hall website.
