SVP party leader Grangier wants to legalize all drugs

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Just after 8 p.m. on Wednesday evening, Kevin Grangier (38) surprised everyone. In a television debate on “Léman Bleu”, organized in collaboration with Blick, he advocated the full legalization of all drugs. Explosive: Grangier is in the SVP, even president of the cantonal party of Vaud and is on the board of the national party. Until now, this has been based on repression.

You said you want to liberalize drug use. Are you serious?
Kevin Granger:(laughs) I’m always serious about this stuff, especially when the subject calls for it. For me it is a matter of freedom and responsibility. If people want to consume more or less addictive products, they should be free to do so. As long as they take responsibility for it and face the consequences.

Are you in favor of legalizing all drugs?
Yes, but provided that the state does not have to bear the damage. We cannot just liberalize everything and at the same time support drug users with millions of dollars and provide them with social and medical care. I want to move this debate away from this moral approach and bring it back to the basics of social responsibility. If someone autonomously decides to consume products that prevent him from meeting his social obligations, affect his employability and thus his ability to pay taxes, then he must face the consequences.

So no more prevention and no medical care?
The debate must definitely start here, on the thin line between freedom and responsibility. Today we realize that prohibitions do not work. Huge sums of public money are spent on ineffective measures. So we need to stop trying to condemn drug users. But neither should we spend astronomical sums on back-up programs, city drug rooms, or other measures at taxpayer expense.

So the state wouldn’t pay for a disease traced back to, say, heroin?
Of course it is much more differentiated and complicated than that, but politicians have to act where they can make a difference. The course I propose is freedom and responsibility.

SVP is a zero-tolerance party, also in the field of drugs. Today, experts argue that the repression has failed and speak of a de facto decriminalization. Are you bitter?
I am bitter because drugs have dramatic health effects. In my village, Noville VD, I know people who got into drugs. School friends I grew up with, who were good students, but eventually suffered from the effects of the drugs. I think it’s a pity that these products are so easily available. However, as a politician, I have to wonder how politicians should act to effectively address this problem, given the banalization of narcotics, their increasing use and availability. We need to step out of political poses and face reality as it is so that politics can exert influence where it can.

Do you agree that the Federal Council and Parliament are satisfied with the current situation, the trivialization and the de facto decriminalization?
I am sorry to note that drugs are downplayed and easily accessible. It’s harder to get a sandwich in Lausanne because the shops have a curfew. On the one hand, it is dangerous to change the legal framework. On the other hand, it is too expensive to increase government funding to comply with the law.

Source:Blick