by Francis Caballero
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Francis Caballero is a lawyer, author of "Le Droit de la Drogue", professor at the University of Nanterre, member of the International Antiprohibitionist League.
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Actuel, Paris, April 1991
Cannabis: one third of criminal trials
"For us lawyers, drugs are a precious business, representing half of criminal affairs. Of these, two thirds of the proceedings concern cannabis alone, in the context of the war on drugs. Heroin represents 30 per cent and cocaine 5 per cent. Too many people are in prison for cannabis alone. Personally speaking, I feel outraged by the situation: the presumption of innocence which is neglected and taunted, customs officers who become pushers, corruption everywhere. Prohibition has the only effect of overcrowding prisons, and making the whole system rot".
The alternative: depenalize, then legalize
"The problem first of all is to remove the moral punishment for the hashish smoker. It is simply grotesque to make no distinction, as shown in the clip "No to drugs", between a shoot (for heroin, Radical Letter's note), a line (for cocaine, Radical Letter's note) and a joint (for cannabis, Radical Letter's note). The violence prompted by drugs is due to hard drugs. No one will steal a car stereo for a tiny peace of shit (hashish, Radical Letter's note)! It is prohibition which raises the prices. If we legalize, the traffic will collapse. Legalization will leave no chance to organized crime".
Spain and The Netherlands: faulty examples
"A repressive law on drug traffic is in force in Spain since 1986, but consumption is authorized. This law is faulty, (because) it leaves the market open to all sorts of traffic".
"In The Netherlands, the system of buying drugs in coffee-shops has worked out well, to such a point that hashish consumption is stagnating! For the 18/25 age group, consumption has increased by 3 per cent between 1976 and 1986, whereas in Germany, in that same period, it has increased by 18 per cent. The problem of the Netherlands is the production, which has remained linked either to clandestine production or to international traffic".
Creating a monopoly of production in each country
"Before imagining anything at all, what we first need to change is the world order. What I suggest is the creation of monopolies of production in each producing country. This would ensure consistent revenues to the farmers, to avoid any deviation toward illegal production. This is what India is doing for medicinal opium. This system would guarantee production prices to the farmers, establishing import contracts with the producing countries, such as Morocco, Colombia, or La Réunion".
"In our countries, we could use desertified areas to grow cannabis on a small scale. In fact, the cultivation of cannabis would produce, according to me, more or less 10.000 jobs in France, in the cultivation, the treatment and distribution of the products....".
A Seita (*) for cannabis
"In the context of the legalization, I suggest that cannabis be marketed by a State organization, exactly like the Seita in France. This was done in Tunisia and French Morocco at the beginning of the century, with the Kif organization. Cannabis would be sold in shops without advertisement, without banners. And in courtyards rather than on the streets!"
"The dose of cannabis would be sold with the specification of its origin, its contents in THC (the euphoric agent contained in cannabis), precautions on its use, etc. The product would be taxed by Social Security, exactly like alcohol and tobacco are. This would mean an income for the State, the decriminalization of millions of consumers, and a reduction of expenses in the judicial field".
"In no case is it a matter of entrusting the distribution of cannabis to the private sector, as suggested by the ultra-conservatives. We are not talking about a commercial product like others. If such were the case, then there would be misuse, advertisement, and the lack of control on the products. Only a State monopoly can assume such task".
Any misuse shall be punished. With a fine.
"The user shall be penalized if he smokes in public places. Exactly like smoking and driving, if this is proved to be dangerous. In this case, the smoker will be given a fine and not a detentive penalty. Users will pay for medical expenses due to bronchitis, cancer or detoxication therapies through the tax system. The death toll for tobacco is 100.000 each year. Cannabis causes no victims, as far as I know. And tobacco addiction is ten times greater than cannabis addiction.
No more military war against hashish
"There are two possible attitudes: prohibition or antiprohibitionism. Legalization is not the end of the process. We need to replace the military war against drugs with a civil struggle against drug misuse. Users should assume their responsibilities and pay for their medical treatments".
(*) Seita is the French State institution which administers the tobacco market.
