THE QUESTION.
In Marseille, the slaughter continues. On the night of Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 August, three men known for drug trafficking died in two probable settlements. Two of them, aged 25 and 26, were shot dead with assault rifles in the city of "La Marine Bleu". The body of the third was found charred in a burning car in the 13th arrondissement of Marseille. Less than five days earlier, a 14-year-old teenager had been found dead, in the heart of the city of "Marronniers". According to the head of the judicial police, Eric Arella, these settling of scores have killed 15 people since the start of the year, including five in the period from late June to early July alone.
Read also Drug trafficking: the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, asks for a "special prosecution"
Faced with these regular acts of violence, Marseille's left-wing elected officials quickly put an old debate back on the table: the legalization of cannabis.
Asked about this, the mayor of the city Benoît Payan estimated that "
this is part of the solutions that must be studied
", even though he "
does not think that legalization is a miracle solution
".
His deputy environmentalist Sébastien Barles was more convinced on his Twitter account: “
Cannabis prohibition is a dead end.
Legalization would make it possible to reduce trafficking and prevent armed struggle between traffickers and to carry out a preventive public health policy
”.
At the national level, the national secretary of EELV, Julien Bayou, also called for legalization, on franceinfo, by questioning the policy of fixed fines of the government. “
We have the strongest criminal repression and the highest rate of addiction among minors under 14. It's a fiasco,
”he denounced. According to him, "
legalization is the way to pull the rug out from under the dealers' feet and at the same time reduce the consumption of minors.
".
As a reminder, 45% of French people aged 15 to 64 have already used cannabis, much more than the European average (27%).
Just over 30% of those under 16 have also smoked, according to the latest report from the European Observatory for Mastiffs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
The question is not new.
It returns to the front of the stage with each news item related to drug trafficking: does the legalization of cannabis, already in effect in some of our European neighbors, really help to curb the illegal trade?
Would it not rather be a means of drastically increasing the trafficking of hard drugs?
Do dealers really have the means to "fall into line"?
CHECKS.
To respond in the way
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