'First ever' bill proposes legal cannabis in France

The Local (France)
Thursday, January 30, 2014

France has some of the toughest possession statutes in Europe, but a first of its kind bill proposed could change that. People smoking a joint in France face a maximum penalty of a year behind bars and a €3,750 fine for the first offence, yet 13.4 million French people admit to sparking up at least once in their life. Even France’s Interior Minister Manuel Vallls said in an interview, he’d tried it “maybe once.” Esther Benbassa, the lawmaker behind the legislation tells why marijuana should be legalized in France. Legalizing cannabis has come up regularly in France, but the discussion never has never gotten far.