Last week Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus signed legislation that legalized medicinal marijuana nationally. The cannabis reform was overwhelmingly passed in the Senate, with a 67-2 vote, and had already been approved in Parliament last year. Unfortunately, the pot reform does not allow citizens to grow their own plants, nor does it require that prescribed medical marijuana being covered by health insurance.
Rather curiously, the newly signed provision also mandates that only imported weed will be allowed to be legally sold in the country initially, in order to “ensure standards” — this particular aspect of the Czech marijuana legalization bill sounds incredibly unsustainable, and even a little nuts to me.
The State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL) will be responsible for the supervision, importation and distribution of most medical marijuana across the nation; some Czech cannabis activists are concerned that stringent federal control of pot might actually make it too expensive or difficult to obtain. Like a number of other progressive countries, small amounts of different drugs for personal use have already been successfully decriminalized in the Czech Republic for many years.
About Rhonda Winter
