The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, has signed into law a sweeping reform of the country’s drug policy. The law legalizes cannabis possession and home cultivation, and paves the way for the medical use of psilocybin.
Around two weeks after the Senate forwarded the bill to him, the Czech President gave the final go-ahead. Its provisions will come into force at the beginning of 2026.
The reforms are part of a wider package of amendments to the Czech Penal Code. Supporters believe they will reduce spending on minor offences, ease prison overcrowding and limit recidivism.
“ This amendment will help criminal law to better distinguish between behavior that is genuinely harmful to society and cases that should not be the subject of criminal proceedings,” said outgoing Justice Minister Pavel Blažek in a report for public broadcaster Česká Televize (CT) last month.
Cannabis: legalized possession, regulated cultivation
With regard to cannabis, the law now authorizes the possession of up to 100 grams at home or 25 grams in the public domain. It also allows the cultivation of up to three cannabis plants at home. Cultivation of four or five plants will be considered a minor offence, while over five plants or possession of more than 200 grams will revert to a criminal offence.
Zdenka Němečková Crkvenjaš, member of the House of Representatives and member of the Civic Democratic Party, was the main driving force behind this reform. After the text was adopted by the lower house, she declared on social networks that it was ” the end of absurd prosecutions against senior citizens who grow cannabis for medicinal purposes “.
Psilocybin: medical use now permitted
As for psilocybin, the reform paves the way for its medical use. The Czech Republic already has a relatively liberal approach to cannabis: it has legalized medical cannabis and, since 2010, possession of less than 15 grams for non-medical use has been considered a simple civil offence.
Among the other measures studied but ultimately dropped from the reform was the legalization of supervised consumption rooms, where users could consume drugs in a supervised setting, with the possibility of testing substances to verify their composition.
The bill also includes amendments in related areas such as alimony, hate crimes, freedom of political expression and other topics.
A signal in Europe: Slovenia follows suit
Meanwhile, in Europe, less than a year after Slovenian voters approved two pro-cannabis referendum measures, the country’s legislators recently introduced a bill to specifically regulate cannabis for medical and scientific purposes.
Tabled by the Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda) and Left (Levica) parties, this text calls for the legalization of cannabis extracts, plants and resins, removing these substances from Slovenia’s list of prohibited drugs. THC, however, would remain banned except for medical or scientific use.
“ Our aim is to protect cannabis patients and users from unverified black market products, guarantee an uninterrupted supply of medical cannabis, and close the current legal loopholes for the medical and scientific use of cannabis,” commented the Freedom Movement after the law’s final passage.
