This is a debate that we did not expect to see reappear now.
Even less during the examination of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) which begins this Thursday.
But the Green MP Julien Bayou has tabled an amendment which, de facto, if adopted, would amount to legalizing cannabis.
The text has just been judged admissible by the services of the National Assembly… It could be examined in public session Thursday or Friday, if the government does not interrupt the discussions before, by a new 49.3.
Concretely, this amendment "aims to create an excise duty (tax relating to a quantity and not to a value, editor's note) on cannabis and cannabis products in the code of taxation of goods and services (CIBS)", whose the product would be allocated “to the “sickness, maternity, disability and death” branch of the general scheme” in order to “create an additional resource for the benefit of the basic compulsory social security schemes”.
Tax cannabis in the same way as alcohol or tobacco
Clearly, it is a question of taxing cannabis in the same way as tobacco or alcohol.
A proposal that is startling since cannabis is not legal in France.
It is considered an illicit product.
In France, the possession and consumption of cannabis come under criminal law, according to a 1970 law. Julien Bayou invokes the decree of August 22, 1990 prohibiting cannabis, the standard of which would be legally inferior to a law on the financing of Social Security.
Beyond the quarrel of specialists, the idea of this amendment - also signed by Aurélien Taché, Sandrine Rousseau and the members of the EELV group in the Assembly - is to tax the production and distribution of cannabis.
This purely fiscal approach allowed the amendment to slip through the cracks of the services of the National Assembly.
Because at the same time, several amendments directly proposing experimentation or legalization of cannabis were rejected, deemed inadmissible.
Politically, is this amendment likely to be adopted?
Not sure, but the debate could be lively in the hemicycle and move the lines.
The left has made a fight out of it.
In its program for the legislative elections, the Nupes plans to "legalize and regulate by a state monopoly the production, sale and consumption of cannabis under conditions allowing the fight against addiction".
The PS and the PCF are campaigning for a national debate on the subject.
But voices could rise outside Nupes to support this text.
Also in the majority, several elected officials are in favor of changing practices.
Like the former LR deputy today at Renaissance Robin Reda, known for his pro-legalization positions.
A subject that divides in macronie.
Emmanuel Macron himself said he was open to this option before entering the Élysée.
Since then, it has evolved towards maintaining the prohibition of cannabis and the all-out fight against drug trafficking.
