Albanian MPs last Friday approved a measure legalizing cannabis for medical purposes. The Albanian parliament voted by 69 votes against 23 the authorization of a limited and controlled cultivation of Cannabis plants, a decision strongly contested by the opposition.
As noted by theAssociated Pressthe passing of the bill is remarkable given Albania’s history as a “European crossroads for cannabis trafficking”.
“Cannabis cultivation flourished in Albania in the past, as drug traffickers exploited the lack of strong governance in the post-communist country. After coming to power in 2013, Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Left Party government made the destruction of cannabis plants its main objective,” the Associated Press reported.
“Over the next two years, he destroyed millions of cannabis plants with an estimated market value of 7 billion euros ($8.5 billion), more than two-thirds of the country’s annual gross domestic product at the time. In 2014, a policeman was shot and fatally injured during a crackdown on a village in the south of the country using armored personnel carriers. Police came under automatic weapon and rocket fire from drug growers. Albania remains one of the main routes for hard drugs. The police still crack down on isolated cases of cannabis cultivation, but much less often than ten years ago”.
Legalization of medical cannabis in Albania
Albanian lawmakers began their work to legalize medical cannabis last summer by drafting a proposal. The bill at the time provided very few details on how the new medical cannabis program would be regulated.
“The purpose of this law is to determine the rules for the cultivation, production and controlled circulation of the Cannabis plant and its by-products, for medical and industrial purposes, through licensed entities and under the supervision of the National Agency for the Control and Supervision of the Cultivation and Transformation of the Cannabis Plant for Medical and Industrial Purposes and the Production of its By-Products,” the bill stated.
After the measure was passed this week, it seems little has changed. How medical cannabis will be regulated is unclear, but the government believes allowing limited cannabis production can increase the country’s tax revenue.
