Czechs Go to Pot

Spearheaded by leading addiction specialist and government "drug czar" Jindrich Voboril, the expert group has been meeting regularly since December to prepare a draft law on the liberalisation and possible legalisation of recreational cannabis use, sale and production in the Czech Republic.

With several other Western countries, notably neighbouring Germany, also moving in that direction, Czechia is riding a European-wide wave that could possibly make it one of the first EU countries to introduce a legally regulated cannabis market.

According to Voboril's original plan, presented to the public in October 2022, the Czech Republic would seek to put an end to the prohibition of cannabis, which he described as "a big social experiment that is not working". In its place would be a reform that could go further than even Malta, where the recreational use and growing of cannabis was partially legalised in 2021.

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, even if the government is already behind in its timetable.

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.

"Many powerful enemies would like to keep the tragically failed cannabis prohibition train moving on, be it from the police, members of the judicial system, or conservative ministerial officials or politicians," Hurt tells BIRN.

"What is also very...