Slovakia: Politicians Still Living in “Reefer Madness” Delusions

Parliamentary elections will be held this year in Slovakia, and one of the biggest newspapers in country Nový čas (New Time) laid out a set of questions for nine of the most prominent politicians, one of them being “Would you decriminalize marijuana?”.

Reprehensible Ignorance

Unfortunately, the answers showed how misinformed and poorly educated Slovakian politicians are when it comes to war on drugs and sensible cannabis policies and laws.

Out of nine respondents, only one – Richard Sulík from liberal Freedom and Solidarity party – said YES, the other nine were just repeating long-time disproved myths about dangers of cannabis and usefulness of repression instead of focusing on harm reduction and prevention.

Lucky Czechs

Cannabis users in the Czech Republic often complain about harsh penal code, however, when we compare our legislation to our Slovakian neighbours, it is evident that our drug laws are much more liberal (all drugs are actually decriminalized for personal use in small – precisely defined – amounts) and more and more politicians are opening up to the idea of going even further: not only decriminalize drugs and legalize cannabis in medicine, but also legalize the plant for recreational use.