Cannabis legalisation: where does France stand?

While Switzerland is opening up to the CBD market, France remains unbending on cannabis use within its borders. It should be said, though, that despite the government ban, Emmanuel Macron’s country is Europe’s leading consumer of marijuana, and the penalties on the books do not appear to be genuinely applied. Where does cannabis stand in France today?

Strict laws that are rarely enforced

The Mazeaud act of 31 December 1970 states that all use of narcotics, cannabis included, is prohibited. The penalty is a heavy one: one year in prison followed by a fine of 3,750 euros. In practice, however, that is not what happens. Out of some 140,000 arrests each year for narcotics use, only 3,098 prison sentences were handed down. That is why, at the start of the year, the French parliament set out to punish cannabis users with a fine of between 150 and 200 euros. Under article L3421-4 of the French public health code, it is also forbidden to promote either the use of cannabis or trafficking in it on French soil. Anyone breaking that rule faces 5 years in prison and a 75,000-euro fine.

Growing cannabis, even for personal use, is entirely prohibited. Yet no legislation sets out any detail on the matter. Traffickers, for their part, remain liable to sentences of up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to 7.5 million euros.

A survey by the French monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction reports that 17 million French people aged between 11 and 64 admit having smoked cannabis at least once in their lives. In the courts, a case-by-case approach appears to prevail on cannabis. Judges have recently shown themselves relatively lenient where medical circumstances are involved: Isabelle was the first French woman using cannabis for therapeutic reasons not to be punished by a court.

Cannabis-based products sold openly

In France, attitudes appear to be gradually shifting. In 2016, more than half of French people were in favour of legalising cannabis and 84% considered the law too harsh and not genuinely enforced. For now there is only one possible exemption, covering the cultivation and import of products containing less than 0.2% THC, that is to say the cannabis known as “CBD”. These products are readily available in dedicated shops as well as through French and foreign websites. In other words, the authorities appear to have been entirely overtaken by the enthusiasm for cannabis in France, in all its forms.

Is decriminalisation just around the corner?

After decriminalisation was floated by Manuel Valls in 2013, then by Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet in 2017, the French president Emmanuel Macron now has his back to the wall. Since the beginning of the year he has held the official report on legalisation. It remains to be seen where he intends to stand, all the more so as he has always been very vague on the subject, moving from a favourable to an unfavourable view during his campaign.