Last week, Czech parliamentarians quietly passed a major overhaul of their drug laws.
From January next year, Czechs will be allowed to grow up to three cannabis plants and keep up to a hundred grams of the sticky green buds at home.
They will also be able to seek psychedelic-assisted therapy with psilocybin, making Czechia the third country to formally legalise the practise after Switzerland and Australia (although others, like Jamaica, never banned it to begin with). From 2026 psilocybin-assisted therapy will be available to the general Czech public, although specifics are yet to be revealed. The bill can be found here in Czech, and translated in English here.
“We achieved a historic victory in the lower house of parliament,” said Tom Vymazal, former MP and chairman of the Czech Safe Cannabis Association.
“Not only did we legalise the possession of up to 100 grams of cannabis in the grower’s home and 25 grams outside, but above all, there was a dramatic reduction in penalties for handling cannabis. Instead of eight years, cannabis users who exceed the legal limit will now go to prison for two or three years and will most likely receive a suspended sentence. So how does that make me feel? I feel fantastic and extremely grateful.”
The measures are part of a bigger package of criminal justice reform that also aims to accelerate decarceration by replacing jail time with fines for most offences (apart from serious crimes like rape). Although the bill has yet to be approved by the senate and signed by the president, experts do not expect serious opposition to its implementation.
Read the full story at Talking Drugs
