Marijuana has been officially legalized in the Czech Republic — the corresponding law was signed by the country’s president, Peter Pavel. About this informs Irozhlas.
The new regulations significantly liberalize the rules for growing and storing cannabis. According to the approved changes, it is allowed to grow up to three bushes of cannabis and keep up to 100 grams at home and up to 25 grams in a public space. Cultivation of four or five plants will be considered an administrative violation, and a larger amount will be a serious crime, as will keeping more than 200 grams at home.
The amendments also allow courts to impose fines for most offences, except for particularly serious crimes or cases of abuse of loved ones or cohabitants. Offenses punishable by up to five years of imprisonment are considered misdemeanors. Critics of this rule point to the risk that wealthier citizens will be able to avoid punishment by paying fines.
In addition to introducing alternative forms of punishment, the new law reduces sanctions for some crimes, including repeated thefts or public endorsement of terrorism on the Internet. It is also provided that non-payment of alimony will be punished only when it puts the child or dependent in a position of material need.
At the same time, some actions will be punished more severely. For example, the law introduces responsibility for the creation of so-called deepfake pornography with the help of artificial intelligence. Courts will be able to prosecute deepfakes if they seriously harm human rights.
It also provides for the possibility of quick court decisions in the form of a criminal order – without a full-fledged court process – with the appointment of a punishment in the form of actual deprivation of liberty. Cannabis-related crimes will now be dealt with in a separate section of the criminal code with new, socially balanced sanctions. It will no longer be a criminal offense to transfer a legal quantity of cannabis to another person.
