In the parade for the legalization of cannabis, several people passed through Prague
Update: 07/09/2022 19:40
Issued by: 07/09/2022, 19:40
Prague – Hundreds of people passed through the center of Prague demanding the legalization of cannabis in the Czech Republic. The Million Marihuana March march left around 16:30 from the Old Town Square to the Cross club in Holešovice, where a cultural program was prepared. In a peaceful march accompanied by music from loudspeakers, people carried banners with the slogans “Hemp plants for every family” or “Vote hemp”. Some participants have cannabis motifs on their clothes.
The chairman of the Legalizace.cz association, Robert Veverka, in his opening speech on the Old Town Square, called for the decriminalization of the use of cannabis accompanied by meaningful regulation. According to him, people should be given the opportunity to buy cannabis in large quantities not only for medical purposes.
“Although an amendment to the law has been in effect in the Czech Republic since January of this year, which allows more licensed companies to grow and export medical cannabis and at the same time increases the permitted amount of THC in all cannabis to one percent, cannabis prohibition continues and prosecutes adults who use cannabis only for personal need,” said Veverka for the organizer in a press release. According to him, the illegality of marijuana has negative effects on public health and human rights, and also puts a disproportionate burden on public budgets and law enforcement agencies in enforcing repressive laws.
Buying marijuana legally under strict conditions could soon be possible in the Czech Republic. The rules of sale and purchase are to be amended by a law that the national anti-drug coordinator Jindřich Vobořil wants to submit before the end of this year. Today, ČTK said that the state could receive billions of crowns in taxes thanks to the controlled cannabis market. Even before the introduction of a regulated market, Czech producers should also be given the opportunity to export their hemp products. Vobořil would like the new law to be in place by January 2024 at the latest. The anti-drug coordinators of the EU states started debating the regulation of the cannabis market in the European Union today in Prague.
The Million Marihuana March event was created in 1999 and since then demonstrations of opposition to the criminalization of cannabis and its users have taken place in hundreds of cities around the world. Until 2019, the parade passed through Prague every year at the beginning of May, the year before last it was moved to the beginning of September due to the coronavirus epidemic. Last fall, the Million Marihuana March did not take place.