One of the EU’s most liberal nations when it comes to therapeutic cannabis, the Czech Republic is now considering legalizing recreational cannabis. The result: after the beer-drinkers, Western stoners are beginning to flock to its capital, self-proclaimed “Amsterdam of the East”, and its CBD stores with their racy, misleading shop windows. For the bohemian life, you’ll have to wait a little longer…
In the ventilated greenhouses of Czech company Zenplanto, in Nelahozeves, some thirty kilometers from Prague, the future looks bright. The company plans to produce a ton of dried medicinal cannabis flowers this year, and “thanks to our legislators,” comments Aleš Hrabák, one of Zenplanto’s co-founders, “the conditions for the development of a national medicinal cannabis industry are ideal.
Therapeutic flexibility
Since 2012, the country has legalized the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes and its legal sale by prescription in pharmacies. Vaclav Havel, who presided over the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003, had paved the way for this in 2011: shortly before he left office, the former Czech dissident granted a presidential pardon to a 72-year-old compatriot who was alleviating the effects of his Parkinson’s disease by producing his own cannabis. The law now authorizes the purchase of 180g of dried flowers per month, prescribed by specialized doctors, via an e-formulary. Until 2022, the national monopoly on the production of therapeutic cannabis was held by a company, Elkoplast CZ, with which the National Institute for the Control of Medicines (ŠÚKL) had signed a contract. Now Zenplanto, along with five other Czech companies, has been granted a license, cultivating plants with up to 1% THC – the highest level permitted in the EU.
German model
At the same time, the Czech Republic has become, along with Germany, the only European country where medicinal cannabis treatments are reimbursed by the public health insurance system, up to 90% of the cost of a prescription of 30 grams of dried flowers per month. In 2022, VZP, the country’s largest public health insurance company, reimbursed more than 600,000 euros for the care of nearly 3,200 medical cannabis patients. Last year, 210 kilograms of medicinal cannabis were prescribed to 8,000 patients by the National Agency for Medicinal Cannabis (ŠÚKL), forty-three times more than in 2019…
With these prospects and 1,000 kg of dried therapeutic cannabis flowers processed by 2023, Zenplanto is now looking beyond national borders. The company plans to export its production to the German market. Zenplanto is also focusing on soft power, with the ambition of making the Czech Republic a European showcase for scientific advances in therapeutic cannabis. In April, Zenplanto sponsored the tenth conference on cannabis and science, held at the Brno Planetarium. Organized by the International Clinical Research Center (ICRC), which brings together St. Anne’s University Hospital and Masaryk University’s Faculty of Medicine, the day’s guest speaker was an international figure in cannabis research and the Czech diaspora, chemist Lumír Ondřej Hanuš, who now lives in Israel.
Pirate Party treasure promises
One day, perhaps, Zenplanto will also launch into recreational cannabis, grown in its gardens by nearly 500 000 Czechs and consumed by twice as many adults – 6 to 10% of the national population, according to the latest report published in 2023 by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA, renamed on July 2 as the European Union Drugs Agency, EUDA). In September 2022, following the arrival in power of a center-right coalition (Spolu, “Together”, led by Petr Fiala, president of the conservative ODS party), Jindřich Vobořil, the country’s national anti-drug coordinator, announced the implementation of a comprehensive reform aimed at legalizing recreational cannabis. The bill, backed by a five-party alliance including Ivan Bartoš’s Pirate Party, aims to focus as much on reducing health risks as on reaping the economic benefits of such legalization, including taxation. According to a study carried out by the Pirate Party, the Czech state could pocket up to 67 million euros a year by legalizing and taxing recreational use, while obviously making budget savings on the law enforcement side, primarily by reducing prison overcrowding. “What’s more, if we manage to launch a regulated market with Germany, it will mean huge export opportunities for our economy”, enthused the Pirates.
Czech Arlesienne
But dreams of the Czech Republic quickly becoming a weed Bohemia were short-lived. This autumn, with the withdrawal of the Pirate party from the government, the draft law (which already lacked consensus among the most conservative parties in the coalition) was postponed indefinitely. The government has just approved amendments that would partially decriminalize the cultivation and possession of small quantities of recreational cannabis, while favoring fines over prison sentences. This new adjustment to the penal code would authorize the cultivation of three cannabis plants with a THC content of over 1%, the possession of a maximum of 50 grams of cannabis outdoors and 25 grams at home. Petr Fiala’s government believes it can pass these changes by the October 2025 elections. Unless the TOP 9 party, already up in arms against the legalization of recreational cannabis, blocks the whole thing. National anti-drug coordinator Jindřich Vobořil, in favor of legalization, was already forced to step down last August, after facing “political and business pressure”. What’s more, having a little weed on you is already decriminalized, while smoking is still technically reprehensible, notes the pro-legalization civil society, led by the pure player Legalizace. This Czech cousin of ZEWEED, which has already had to deal with the courts for “spreading drug addiction”, is led by Robert Veverka, a member of the Pirate Party and a leading figure in Prague municipal life.
Smoky tourists
In the meantime, the Czech Republic is experiencing a strange in-between period with many grey areas. A legal limbo that primarily benefits CBD stores and franchises capitalizing on Prague’s new image as the “Amsterdam of the East” in the making. In the capital, young Western tourists now alternate between beer-pong bars and the CBD boutiques that have sprung up by the dozen in its historic center. Rasta Koala, Plastic Fantastic, Little Amsterdam, Your Kush, Swiss Queen, Smoking Panda, Mr420… from Wenceslas Square to the Astronomical Clock, the word “cannabis” is conspicuously displayed in the windows of the Old Town. But stoners and stoner-lovers are quickly disillusioned: while recreational cannabis seeds are on sale (without THC content, as required by law), only 1% CBD is available. Beverages, capsules, sprays, essential oils, flowers… Italian and Swiss brands now compete with national operators (Euphoria Trade, CBDmat, Carun, SunState or Konopny Tata) and business is soaring. Sales of CBD-based products, which exceeded four million euros last year, are set to double by 2028. But it’s still just paramedical hemp…
Thriving black market
“chceš trávu nebo hašiš? “Huleni? “Konopi? “On the edge of Wenceslas Square, it doesn’t take long to come across a recreational cannabis vendor offering a gram for 10 euros. The more discreet traveler will have already obtained the Telegram contacts of particularly recommended dealers, who can also offer, alas, the worst kind of highs. The Czech Republic is facing a serious public health crisis: 400,000 adults are considered to be at risk of problematic consumption, particularly of methamphetamines and opioids. Legalizing the recreational sector, while generating taxes, would enable the government to prioritize and fund the treatment of these new addictions, which are on the rise. On the other hand, it’s not certain that legal cannabis will solve the problem of hyper-tourism in Prague. Quite the contrary, in fact. Last year, the capital was visited by five and a half million travellers, an increase of 28% in one year, and not just for Kafka. Praguers continue to suffer (and grumble more and more) their reputation as a haven for booze, a city where beer remains cheaper than water. No more stag parties on Ryanair: the Prague municipality has just done it the hard way: banning nightly bar tours organized by travel agencies. Will we have to do the same tomorrow with weed tourists? It’s well worth a pause for reflection on the road to legalization.
Article published in ZEWEED magazine #7
