Abstract
The French police arrested about 15 000 drug users in 2008. The penal sanction for drug use is given in article L3421-1 in the Code of Public Health. Drugs have been consumed by many French citizens for a long time. However, since the twentieth century, this consumption has been increasing. Drug users have been treated similar to criminals. With the onset of AIDS and viral hepatitis, the risk of infection is high in the case of drug user. This fear has only strengthened the need to alert the public in order to help them urgently. Drug users who were treated as criminals fell ill and required help. Despite the prohibition by this law, the use of illegal drugs was on the rise. There have been several methods adopted that were created to slow down the progression of its usage. Treatments introduced by the Act of 1970 to allow drug users to access treatment following an arrest, was one step in this direction. The Act of 1970 is regularly amended by multiple circulars since 1970. However, if the legislature believed this mode of treatment as an alternative to the repression of drug use, it has to underline the functions and its effects in a clear manner. Every drug user arrested by the police may be applied criminal sanctions under the code of public health. The fact that this offense is the code of public health is significant. The drug user is defined as a "patient" or a "subject at risk who need protection". To an offense based on the judiciary system, a sanitary proposition is advanced to break the logic of repression. If the user agrees, the public prosecutor's office suspends judiciary procedure and sends users to the health authorities such as Local Offices for Health and Social Actions. In this document, we examine how to combine repression and care, how the procedures of treatment for users could be introduced in a repression system and how they are introduced in the organization of the criminal justice system.
