Prague, 4 September – On Wednesday, 4 September, the NGO Rational Regulation introduced a nationwide campaign in support of the draft bill on comprehensive regulation of cannabis, which was written by a group of experts led by former national coordinator Jindřich Vobořil at the Offices of Government. Along with this, the association is also pushing for an amendment to the Criminal Code that will put an end to the absurdly long sentences for cannabis.
The aim of the campaign is to open up the debate among the professional and lay public on cannabis regulation through short videos, while appealing to the political representation to address this topic urgently.
“Addiction policy without ideology and based on facts will only be effective if there is support for substitutes in the form of less risky substances on regulated market. At the same time, the state needs to provide funds for prevention,” says Jindřich Vobořil, a former drug coordinator and chairman of the think tank Rational Addiction Policies. He adds: “That is why, even before I left my position as national coordinator, I proposed to the government to adopt such legislative changes in regard to cannabis that would reduce the availability of this substance to minors and limit the scope of the dangerous illegal market. At the same time, my bill contains the creation of a self-funding agency within the Offices of Government that would be responsible not only for cannabis regulation but also, for example, for much-needed solutions to the funding of prevention services.”
Dominik Stroukal, a member of the government’s National Economic Council, also supports the regulation. “As with other repressive measures, we are talking about the costs of law-making and enforcement in the case of cannabis prohibition. It doesn’t sound like anything huge in general, but in total it has already run into the hundreds of millions, maybe even billions. Criminal code and sentencing principles need to be adjusted, and, in the area of drug policy, we need to introduce a legal regulated cannabis market and decriminalise selected offences,” Stroukal lists the changes that need to be made.
“The only way to end the unnecessary and cruel criminalization of cannabis growers is to change the criminal code to take away the ability of the courts to jail people for long periods of time for simply growing or possessing cannabis. Today, people are serving 5, 8 or 12 years for growing cannabis for themselves to make ointments or for harvesting ten plants,” said Matěj Hollan, spokesman for the citizen initiative Families Against Prohibition and director of the Association of Addiction Service Providers, who is mapping cannabis repression.
Pavel Kubů, the chairman of the patient association for cannabis treatment KOPAC and a physician, is also clear on the issue of comprehensive regulation of cannabis: “We demand legislative protection for patients and their families in the case of self-supply of cannabis, because the state has long been unable to ensure the availability of medical cannabis to patients in need. The 2023 report on illicit drugs in the Czech Republic published by the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addictions estimates the number of people who have used cannabis exclusively for self-medication in the last year at 250 000. However, only 8 037 patients were dispensed cannabis for medical use in the same year. This leaves more than 240 000 people relying solely on illegal self-supply from unofficial sources,” Kubů explains.
“Only comprehensive regulation of cannabis will protect the most vulnerable in society, namely the elderly, who will not face the risk of prosecution if they grow a few cannabis plants in their gardens for their aching knees. It will also protect children and their parents, as regulation will significantly reduce the impact of the illicit market and thus limit the availability of cannabis to minors. Regulation will also help law enforcement agencies, reduce unfair criminalization, save law enforcement costs and bring funds to the public budget through a regulated market,” summarizes the main arguments for cannabis regulation Robert Veverka, chairman of the Rational Regulation Association.
One arm of the campaign includes crowdfunding on popular Czech platform call HitHit. Every support is much needed according to the organizers. The funds raised will be used to further promote the comprehensive regulation of cannabis in the media, to support victims of cannabis prohibition, to carry out legal analyses and help in commenting on legislative changes or to organize discussion panels with experts and politicians.
Contacts:
Robert Veverka, Chairman of the Rational Regulation Association
e-mail: robert@legalpub.cz
tel.: 773 691 561
Lukáš Hurt, editor-in-chief of Cannabis magazine
e-mail: hurtakct@gmail.com
tel.: 730 128 319