Cannabis Growing - Legal situation in European countries

Smoker's Lounge Security & Legal
#1

Hello, I’d like to summarize current legal situation when growing marijuana in different countries - I hope you can share your own country’s policy so we can compare different kind of government approaches… Let me start:

Czech republic - "5 plants rule"

Theoretically there is “tolerated” limit of 5 plants. If you grow up to 5 plants and get caught it is considered minor offense (not criminal act). You can’t go to jail for minor offense - there is no court or hearing, only civil servant can give you fine.

Growing hemp containing the active ingredient above THC 0.3% is considered misdemeanor according to § 30 paragraph. 1 point. k) Act. no. 200/1990 Coll. misdemeanors, while for small amounts is considered to range up to five plants. Six or more grown plants with a THC content exceeding 0.3% is considered a criminal offense under § 285 of the Penal Code no. 40/2009 Coll. And that goes for any cultivation including medicinal purposes, even if producer is holder of the license granted by the Ministry of Health.

Source: Czech Police

In practice: Police doesn’t actively seek “small fishes”… But if there is neighbor allegation they must act. When caught it depends if prosecutor finds evidence that you have sold substantial amount. If not it is just illegal “drug production” which when combined with proper defense (medical purposes, ointments) in 99% of cases leads to parole.

I don’t know / heard of anyone who would have been sentenced to prison for pure growing… When combined with selling/distribution its whole another story (3 - 5 years in jail is not uncommon).

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#2

N how about times before Berlin Wall falls? Im curious…

#3

I’ve heard about it mostly from the stories because I wasn’t at adult age in 1989 Velvet Revolution… But from what I’ve heard from previous generation practically nobody knew what cannabis was so these few growers could do crazy stuff like growing at balconies in urban areas without getting any attention :smiley: … These was mostly sativas and ruderalis because it grows like weed in these areas. Borders were closed in Soviet region so nothing could get in or out. Also the regime was very very strict and practically everybody was afraid to do anything to deviate from the crowd. You know the secret police and so on…

But it was very isolated phenomena associated mostly with underground culture scene - Plastic people of the Universe and other music bands. They were close to psychedelic drugs. There were also many very progressive expert studies of LSD by psychologists *. At the time there was not much known about all these substancies including any possible dangers. But we hadn’t any significant growing or breeding scene in CZ. There was much more science done about LSD and other chemicals.

It was after the Velvet revolution that Cannabis became so widespread that they had to put some drug laws into books.

*) One great story about LSD testing in 70’s is that chief scientists at psychology dept. of university were about to order about one thousand doses of LSD to do some clinical testing with students and artists for the research. And they were about to order it from chemical factory. At the time everything was central-planned and factory state-owned so they just had to fill in form and get it approved by Communist party. So they have approached the Party and the research plan was approved (The Party leaders were obsessed with it mainly because of its potential in military). Then the doctor filling the order form accidentally mistyped the unit (g/kg), but there wasn’t anybody in the pharmaceutical factory who could understand it in details (and know how much is single dose) so nobody noticed this error, and he just got what he wanted and one day factory supplied him with thousand times more of LSD than he needed. So there was enough to do practically any testing for years :slight_smile: (they just kept this error for secret for years till Communism fell)… and probably everyone here knows personally someone that was part of the testing back in 70’s and beggining of the 80’s.

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#4

We had biggest factory for LSD production till 1958. Here is the military experiment to decide if LSD can destroy command. They were under simulated attack during experiment and thought that Czech Republic is attacked from outside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxCLXk6XgrQ

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#5

Unfortunatly, mate I’m living in the Core of anti cannabis propaganda Worldwide, Germany. I have never seen more fear in people about a Plant, it’s ridiculous. This leads me to not post any photo with metadata on the net. Police has made a common buisiness for raiding people like me and organized crime is too big to touch it. Biker Gangs control the big MJ Buisiness, but I think you soon can expect a Growlog and some new infos about my person, when I have everything sorted and went off the tails.

Until then I’m just the Guy with a Monocle and hat.

Be well.

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#6

The laws in Germany are pretty progressive in regards to cannabis compared to some other 9not all) parts of Europe!

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#7

Supreme Court: Homegrowing made legal in Italy

Called on to clarify previous conflicting interpretations of the law, the Court of Cassation decreed that the crime of growing narcotic drugs should exclude “small amounts grown domestically for the exclusive use of the grower”.

while the growing of cannabis plants remains illegal, if it is being grown for personal consumption then no law has been broken.

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/12/27/world/europe/27reuters-italy-cannabis-ruling.html

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#8

This is a very interesting topic for me (American) I hope soon it will be legal world wide though I won’t hold my breath…very cool about the 5 plant rule I’m pretty sure my grandfather came from Czechoslovakia we got a German name on the way into the country but he definitely wasn’t German lol

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