France has the harshest laws against cannabis in all of Europe, yet 700,000 people consume it on a daily basis–more people than almost any other country in Europe.

French officials question whether using cannabis socially should have such high consequences with up to 41 percent of the population being cannabis consumers.

France’s finance minister Bruno LeMaire told French radio softening cannabis laws is necessary right now, however, he doesn’t believe cannabis should be legalized.

“This is my personal conviction: cannabis must not be legalised. On the other hand, we must take a good hard look at where we have gone wrong … we have the harshest laws in Europe, yet the highest consumption rates,” LeMaire said.

In 2015, there were 64,000 drug-related offenses, however only 3,098 ended in a prison sentence. With such harsh laws against cannabis users, police officers concentrate most of their efforts on cannabis users instead of traffickers.

Cannabis users can face up to a year in prison and a fine of 3,750 euros.

A French parliamentary report to be released this week suggests to set a fixed fine of a lesser amount of 150 to 200 euros to penalize cannabis users, since the current legislation is just not working.

“The fixed fine of 150 to 200 euros that I propose would enable police officers in the field to stop the legal procedure there and then with the person who has been caught,” MP Reda told Le Parisien. “The advantage of this is that the punishment is immediate and systematic.”

While cannabis legalization is not in the cards yet, heavy cannabis decriminalization does seem underway.