Czechoslovakia

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Czech court supports cannabis grower

ČeskéNoviny.cz
March 3, 2008

Prague- The Czech Supreme Court has upheld a complaint of a woman who had grown cannabis for medical purposes and who had been found guilty of illegal production and possession of drugs by lower level courts and ordered the Prague City Court to deal with her case again.

"The growing of cannabis is not the production of a drug," the court panel headed by Vladimir Jurka said four weeks ago in the verdict that was published on its website now.

Police found 70 plants of cannabis in the woman's vegetable garden. She said she used them to treat her illnesses. She suffered from sole pain and an ulcer and said that her doctor knew that she used cannabis.

The Supreme Court's verdict does not mean legalising cannabis growing. The court stated, however, that the lower level courts should thoroughly prove whether the grower intended to produce marijuana from cannabis or just use it for medical purposes.

The state attorney who supported the woman's complaint said "doctors in the Czech Republic are aware of cannabis medical effects and its use is tolerated if positive results are registered."

In 2005, the Supreme Court issued a verdict that could be interpreted that cannabis growing is legal unlike marijuana production and such interpretations appeared in the media.

The court refuted them and stated that cannabis growing without a permit is illegal since cannabis is a drug.

However, the court said that cannabis growing could not be automatically identified with the production of drugs and courts should thus thoroughly consider the circumstances of each individual case.

[palmspringsbum]

Radio Prague
[04.03.2008] - Current Affairs - Ruth Fraňková

Supreme Court rules in favour of cannabis grower

The Supreme Court recently ruled in favour of a woman who had grown cannabis for medicinal purposes and who had been previously found guilty of illegal production and possession of drugs by a lower court. The breakthrough ruling suggests that growing cannabis is not necessarily the same thing as marijuana production. Experts believe it could set an important legal precedent. Ruth Fraňková reports:

<table class=posttable align=right width=131><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/douda_ivan.jpg title="Ivan Douda"></td></tr></table>A 57-year-old pensioner from a village in Central Bohemia cultivated some seventy cannabis plants in her vegetable garden, using them to treat her ulcer as well as foot pains. As a result, a regional court in the town of Nymburk twice found her guilty of illegal production and possession of marihuana and she was given a suspended sentence of two years. The Supreme Court has now overruled the previous verdicts and ordered the Prague Municipal Court to re-examine the case. Ivan Douda, one of the founders of Prague’s “Drop-in” drug clinic, welcomes the verdict.

“I think this a very important decision and I hope that everybody, I mean the police and lower courts, will accept it. We were waiting for this ruling for a long time. As it is now, many Czechs are using cannabis for medicinal purposes and they have to grow it illegally. It is a very bad thing if law doesn’t respect this reality and if people can’t use something that is good for their health.”

The ruling of the Supreme Courts does not make the growing of cannabis legal and people who do so can still be accused of illegal production and possession of drugs. Nevertheless the verdict suggests that lower courts should thoroughly investigate individual cases to prove whether the grower really intended to produce marihuana or just use it for medical purposes. But observers, including Ivan Douda of Drop-In, stress it would be useful for those who do, to have some kind of doctor’s recommendation. More and more people are being tried for marihuana possession in the Czech Republic each year and experts now hope that the recent Supreme Court decision could lower the number of what they view as unfair convictions.

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Czech Republic Legalizes Medical Marijuana Cultivation

Monday, March 17 2008 @ 12:05 PM EDT
Edited by: Michael Hess

High court declares the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes to be legal

BBSNews 2008-03-17 -- (IACM) According to a report by Radio Praha of 4 March the high court ruled that the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes is not a criminal offence. The court had to decide on the case of a woman, who had been convicted by a lower court but referred to the fact that she intended to use the cultivated plants for the alleviation of skin and stomach problems and not for the production of psychoactive effects. Cannabis is increasingly used for medicinal purposes in the Czech Republic.

The mere discovery of the plants was not sufficient for conviction. Rather, it would have been necessary to prove the intention to make marijuana from the plants. Cultivation of hemp for the production of skin ointments would however constitute only a small public hazard and it would not be reasonable to criminalize it, the judgment stated. The case has now to by retried by a lower court.

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Cannabis Legalised by Czech Republic


PR Canna Zine
March 18, 2008


In an unprecedented show of support for the global medical cannabis community, the Supreme Court in the Czech Republic, has decided in favour of growing cannabis destined for medical applications, according to a news report broadcast by Radio Praha in Prague.

The decision comes on the back of a recent court case which saw a pensioner from the "Central Bohemia" region of the Czech Republic, who was twice convicted of growing cannabis on a vegetable patch, which she then used in the treatment of an ulcer, and chronic foot pain.

If you are a patient who uses cannabis to relieve sometimes painful and debilitating symptoms, ours is a European Dis-Union.

Even though a doctors note supported the evidence, the local regional court in the town of Nymburk twice found her guilty of illegal production and possession of marijuana and she was given a suspended prison sentence of two years.

But the Supreme Court has now overruled the previous verdicts and ordered the lower, Prague Municipal Court to re-examine the case's. Under the new Supreme Court ruling this should see the lady in question receive an acquital, instead of a two year suspended prison sentence and at last it would seem, common sense prevails.

The Czech Republic isn't alone in terms of European member states which recognise the efficacy of cannabis as a workeable alternative to more traditional clinical medicines.

It was in the summer of 2007 that Germany allowed its first medical marijuana patient to legally buy medical grade marijuana.

German regional newspaper 'Suddeutsche Zeitung' reported that the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices' decision to permit the 51-year-old female multiple sclerosis patient, to legally buy cannabis from a pharmacy was 'unprecedented'.

Until this change in the rules came into being, doctors, were only allowed to prescribe a synthetic form of cannabis called Dronabinol. A substance which is not covered by health insurance, and which is known to bring on paranoia amongst its users.

Patients who acquired it without a doctor's prescription risked prosecution.

Under the institute's ruling, the woman, who was identified only as Claudia H., is allowed to buy a "standardized extract" from the cannabis plant at a pharmacy for a one-year period. A doctor has to monitor the medicinal marijuana therapy and the drug must be kept in a safe to prevent theft.

The Munich newspaper said several scientific studies showed cannabis can ease pain and spasms often associated with multiple sclerosis, a debilitating nerve ailment. It's also known to prevent weight loss among cancer and AIDS patients, and whilst these details have been around the public domain for many years, only now is it becoming more widely accepted as fact.

The Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal have also made "policy changes" to reflect the need for an alternative set of rules for those who use cannabis from medical neccessity and the liberalisation of cannabis seems to be paying off.

In Holland, whilst (illegal) class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine continue to be problematic to society, the same thing can't be said of cannabis, which Pan-European drug league tables pay witness to.

Contrary to the decriminalisation of cannabis causing an upturn in drug user figures, Holland has consistently finished at the bottom of the drug users league for Europe. Which caused some "book-cooking " from the United Nations as they strived to maintain a vice like grip on European drug law.

Chief Constables up and down the country, with the noteable exception North Wales Chief of Police Richard Brunstrom, have constantly bleated for a change in law.

ACPO, (the Association of Chief Police Officers), after supporting David Blunkett in reclassifying cannabis from Class B to class C back in 04, have now reversed their stance, calling for cannabis laws to be toughened up, and coming up with all sorts of reasons why "their method" of eradicating drugs from our streets will work. This time?

Once upon a time, in the dark days pre-internet, it was possible to keep true facts hidden away, buried, and available only on a need to know basis.

Magazines and newspapers long ago set the tone for what little reporting there is, involving cannabis.

But in these days of freedom of speech, and the Internet providing a platform for those who can be bothered to use it, the word is out on cannabis and its medical applications.

Governments and administrations in Europe and further afield, are turning wholesale, to allowing the use of medical grade cannabis, (which differs not one jot from the home-grown, super-dupa skunk the press, and government have such a "downer" on), and which surely begs the question, "If using cannabis here in the UK, gives you cancer, schizophrenia, makes your semen not quite as "potent" as it used to be, and makes your teeth fall out, then why are they allowed to use it in all these other countries"?

Perhaps the Health Minister, (Alan Johnson MP) would like to comment?

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Activists call on Czech MPs to legalise cannabis as medicine

ČeskéNoviny.cz
March 21, 2008


<span class=postbold>Prague- Activists from the initiative Cannabis is Medicine today called on Czech lower house deputies to allow legal growing of cannabis and use of marijuana for the treatment of illnesses.</span>

The initiative proposes that any Czech who announced it to the Health Ministry be allowed to grow up to 1.5 kilogramme of marijuana a year.

The call was signed by a number of Czech personalities, including singer Marta Kubisova, former MP Tana Fiserova and documentary film director Olga Sommerova.

Cannabis products are used for example in the treatment of arthrosis and rheumatism. They also help epileptics and people suffering from the Parkinson's disease.

The signatories call on the deputies to include their demand in the Penal Code that the lower house started to discuss. People who grow one to three cannabis plants or have up to 20 marijuana cigarettes will face merely a fine under the new code.

The initiative wants the amount to be increased. "Only three cannabis plants, this is ridiculous," said Jiri Richter, head of the association of NGOs for prevention and treatment of drug abuse.

Richter told CTK that he believed marijuana should become completely legal. He added that quality prevention programmes needed to accompany the legalisation.

The Supreme Court recently supported an appeal of a woman from central Bohemia who was charged over growing some 70 cannabis plants in her garden. The woman says she uses the plants for medical purposes.

The junior ruling Green Party supports marijuana's decriminalisation. Some politicians, including opposition leader Jiri Paroubek (Social Democrats, CSSD), even spoke of its legalisation, but drug abuse experts consider this impossible.

The use of soft drugs is not legal in any European country.

Alcohol and tobacco are followed by marijuana as the most often abused drugs in the Czech Republic.

According to surveys, one in four 15-year-old Czechs smoked marijuana at least once. International comparisons show that Czech youths and children experiment with marijuana more than young people from most of the other European countries.

Author: ČTK