Press release, Prague, 23 January 2025 – Racionální Regulace (Rational Regulation) association is convinced that the criminal law reform proposal submitted by Justice Minister Pavel Blažek will not lead to real decriminalisation of cannabis unless certain amendments are adopted.
The most pressing issue is the question of the permitted amount of harvested and possessed cannabis, which has been set at just 50 grams out of the three permitted plants. As experts point out, the average grower can harvest between 100 and 500 grams of dried cannabis per plant. Moreover, this biomass is wet at the time of harvest and weighs several times more.
This ‘irregularity’ will result in legal uncertainty and leave the police with a tool to continue to persecute small-scale consumers who grow solely for their own use. “This means that the prosecution of people who cause no social harm will continue, and taxpayers’ pockets will continue to be drained of considerable financial resources for these repressive activities” warns one of the founding members of Racionalni Regulace, Pavel Kubů, MD.
For this reason, the think tank Racionální politiky závislostí (Rational Addiction Policies), in cooperation with experienced criminal law attorneys and our association, has prepared an amendment aimed at ensuring that the proclaimed goals of the Criminal Code reform – to actually decriminalise the use of cannabis for personal use, not just in theory – are achieved.
“Rational Regulation Association supports this amendment and we are actively participating in discussions with MPs and other politicians,” explains Robert Veverka, chairman of the association. “At the same time, we have been watching with concern the efforts of prohibitionists who are trying to sabotage the whole cannabis part of the reform by presenting politicians with distorted or outright false information about the negative consequences of similar moves around the world.”
Official statistics and experts on drug issues both in the Czech Republic and abroad (for example, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and his December criticism of the war on drugs) speak clearly – the prohibition of cannabis and other substances is a catastrophic failure and any moves away from repression towards liberalisation, decriminalisation and regulation have a range of positive impacts for both individuals and society as a whole.
The Rational Regulation Association, z.s. consists of representatives of the Czech Cannabis Cluster CzecHemp, the Safe Cannabis Association and Legalizace.cz. The aim of the association is to convince the political representation of the need to change the cannabis legislation towards its loosening, decriminalization and regulation.
Contacts:
Robert Veverka, President of the Rational Regulation Association
E-mail: info@racionalniregulace.cz
phone: 773 691 561