French get tough on cannabis… with £2,000 on-the-spot fines for smokers

Cannabis smokers in France will face on-the-spot fines of up to £2,100 in a bid to tackle drug-related gang violence.

Police are being given 5,000 portable card machines to force people in possession of the drug who do not have cash to instantly pay a penalty, starting at £130 for a first time offence.

President Emmanuel Macron said it was ‘unacceptable’ that 65 per cent of the 350,000 fines given for cannabis possession since September 2020 had not been paid as he outlined the plans to clamp down on fare dodgers.

In an interview with La Provence, a newspaper published in the crime-hit city of Marseille where 23 people have been killed in drug gang violence this year alone, the president said that decriminalising cannabis was not the solution.

Mr Macron said: ‘People who have the means to consume drugs, because for them it’s recreational, must understand that they’re sustaining criminal networks. They are effectively complicit.’

Despite its strict laws, France has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in Europe, with an estimated five million annual users and at least 900,000 daily smokers.

Many people in France support decriminalisation or even full legalisation of the drug, including Green MP Julien Bayou who said ‘we must legalise… it is a matter of public health’ in response to the president’s new proposals.

But Mr Macron said: ‘I have asked the interior minister to prepare a decree by the end of the summer, so that fines can be paid immediately, by bank card or in cash.’

But police union spokesman Rudy Manna said the plan would be unlikely to work. He told The Times: ‘Suppose you’re a police officer and you take hundreds of euros in cash for a fine but then you intervene in an armed robbery or an assault and you drop the money in the struggle. What happens then?’

Police are being given 5,000 portable card machines to force people in possession of the drug who do not have cash to instantly pay a penalty, starting at £130 for a first time offence (Stock Image)

Mr Macron completes his three-day visit to Marseille today following a similar visit two years ago, when he promised to improve public services and clamp down on crime.

Last year several UK police chiefs warned cannabis is just as harmful as cocaine and should be classified as a Class A drug. Tory police and crime commissioners demanded it be put on a par with heroin and cocaine to tackle usage.

The change would see the maximum penalties for possession rise from five to seven years, and the maximum for supplying cannabis would increase from 14 years in prison to a life sentence.

Cannabis is a class B drug in the UK, but users who are caught with it can escape with as little as a warning.