Tilray Brands - European Cannabis Update Czech Republic: Cannabis legalization based on the German model?
January 22, 2024
A good year ago it was announced in the Czech Republic that they would also strive for reforms regarding the handling of cannabis and wanted to legalize the natural intoxicant. In addition to self-cultivation and communal cultivation in associations such as Cannabis Social Clubs, they went a little further and announced that they also wanted to create a legal market.
The aim was to achieve this despite existing hurdles in EU law by amending the Schengen Agreement and enacting import restrictions on cannabis in accordance with Article 36 of the Treaty, which would then be in line with the Agreement. But after this was confirmed in the summer of 2023, a draft law to regulate cannabis was presented on January 10th that no longer provides for a legal market.
But according to members of the working group behind the entire legalization project, it is more of a carefully orchestrated ploy to put political pressure on opponents of the law.
A good step ahead
Although the recreational use of cannabis is not legal in the Czech Republic, possession of cannabis for personal use was decriminalized in 2010 and medical cannabis was legalized in 2013. Now, similar to Germany, they wanted to ensure that a legal market could be created that would curb black market trade. Of course, there are also enough opponents of the project in the EU member state, even if the population actually supports the legalization of cannabis. Apparently, when developing the draft law, efforts were made to make the mood in the country a little clearer to these opponents by removing the planned sales model for recreational cannabis.
https://www.hanf-magazin.com/politik/international/tschechien-cannabislegalisierung-nach-deutschem-vorbild/