Paris.- The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced today that fines for drug use may be paid at the time of the offense in cash or by card, a measure that seeks to alleviate the high rate of non-payment.
Macron made this announcement during a visit to Marseille, one of the most violent and drug-problem French cities in France.
«I have asked that, by the end of the summer, a decree be prepared. (…) We have already begun to equip agents with 5,000 card payment machines. We are talking about something very specific,” he said.
According to the president, you cannot “give an inch to drug trafficking and the crime that it implies.”
Currently, at least a third of the fines applied in France to drug users are not compensated.
In a law dating from 1970, considered one of the most repressive in Europe, France punished drug use with a sentence of up to one year and a fine of 3,750 euros.
However, the Macron government had already reduced the maximum penalty to 2,500 euros in 2020, 200 euros if it was the first consumption.
