In the Monday edition of the daily Le Soir and during an interview with La Première (RTBF), he pleads in any case for a major national debate on this subject in view of the 2024 elections. He says he is convinced that by taking cannabis out of the criminal field, we can focus on the trafficking of hard drugs.
“I call for a national drugs plan, which combines all the skills“, explains the socialist mayor. “Towns and municipalities, because they are the front-line actors, the Communities and Regions, which are particularly competent in health and safety prevention and finally the federal government, with the Ministers of Health and the Interior. We must stop scattering these means. I say: let’s do like Germany, like Luxembourg, like Portugal, like Spain, like the Netherlands? Let’s have a calm discussion. It is not a product to be promoted, but a product to be managed“, he added in the context of his interview with “Le Soir”.
Do not “invisibilize a problem”
Philippe Close says he is in favor of legalization, in the long term, but in the Belgian-Belgian political context – roughly with parties rather for, French-speaking side, and rather against, Dutch-speaking side – he says he is ready to move forward “by strata“going through a first step, namely decriminalization, as in Quebec and in thirteen American states.
“What I can’t stand in our society is when we want to make a problem invisible. I want it to come on the agenda in order to free up time for my police officers, so that they can work on trafficking in hard drugs. How many people are convicted of simple possession of cannabis? Zero! You must already have a solid stock to be prosecuted“, he said again.
“It’s not the Covid that worries me the most at the moment”
Asked about the risks posed by the National Day festivities in the midst of an upsurge in the epidemic, the mayor was rather optimistic, stressing the fact that hospitalizations were not currently exploding. “It is not the Covid that worries me the most”, decreed Mr. Close on La Première. “I am very worried about the elderly. I am also appealing: go see your neighbors, ring the doorbell.”