Czechs go to pot

Czechia is preparing to introduce a fully legal and regulated cannabis market, with details expected by the end of June, but it’s still not a done deal
Balkan Insight
Monday, April 17, 2023

czech cannabis flag2On April 5, the government approved the 2023-2025 Addiction Policy Action Plan, a wide-ranging policy reform package, including the liberalisation and possible legalisation of recreational cannabis use, sale and production in the Czech Republic. With government parties enjoying a majority in both chambers of parliament, a newly elected pro-legalisation president and widespread public support to ease the rules, the declared goal of legalisation coming into force in 2024 doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Seeing it as a homerun, however, would be a mistake, according to Lukas Hurt, a long-time pro-legalisation activist and editor-in-chief of Magazin Konopi, an online and print publication he co-founded in 2018 that specialises in covering the medical uses of cannabis.