Under new plans, cannabis users in France who are found in possession of even a tiny amount of the drug might soon be subject to immediate fines of up to €2,500 (£2,150).
Police will receive 5,000 portable bank card readers so they may promptly demand €150 for a first offence from those who lack the necessary funds.
It is “unacceptable,” according to French President Emmanual Macron, since just 35% of the cannabis fines issued since September 2020 have been paid.
He said the new policy, to be rolled out in the summer, is his latest bid to stamp out drug rings and gang violence.
‘People who have the means to consume drugs, because for them it’s recreational, must understand that they’re sustaining criminal networks,’ he said.
‘They are effectively complicit.’
The lump sum will apply for cannabis and other drugs, though he did not specify which, and see fines from €200 – if paid on time – to €2,500.
Macron has asked Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin to ‘prepare a decree by the end of the summer, so that fines can be paid immediately, by bank card or in cash.’
Since 2016, being caught with cannabis for the first time can wind someone up with a fine between €200 and €450 – not paying can lead to a court summons.
As much as France has among the strictest drug laws in Europe, 11% of French people have smoked the drug in the past 12 months – the highest in Europe.
According to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), nearly one in two French people have tried the drug at least once.
Macron once again toughening the country’s drug-busting laws reignited a debate over how the measures will impact those who take medical cannabis and may even curdle into further gang violence.
Arié Alimi, a human rights lawyer, said France should follow in the footsteps of Canada, dozens of US states and even their neighbour Germany in legalising recreational marijuana.
‘When it’s illegal, when there’s prohibition, you create criminality and mafias,’ he told the BFM television network on Monday.
Police handling cash could also lead to corruption, Alimi warned, while stressing that distinguishing between illegal cannabis and legal CBD would be tricky.
Macron’s measure even found critics from police officials.
Grégory Joron, head of the police union UNITÉ SGP Police FO, tweeted: ‘The police are not debt collectors!’
Rudy Manna, a spokesman for the police union Alliance Police nationale, told BFM said becoming ‘debt collectors’ adds to the already long list of responsibilities a typical police officer has.
Julien Bayou, an MP for Europe Ecology, France’s Green party, accused Macron of ‘hypocrisy’ as he poked holes in how the measure would be enforced.
‘We must legalise it,’ he tweeted, ‘it’s a matter of public health.’