Albania legalizes medical cannabis

Last Friday, Albanian lawmakers approved a measure legalizing cannabis for medical purposes. The Albanian parliament voted 69 to 23 to authorize limited and controlled cultivation of cannabis plants, a decision strongly opposed by the opposition.

As noted by the’Associated Press, the passage of the bill is remarkable given Albania’s history as a «European hub for cannabis trafficking.».

«The culture of Cannabis has flourished in Albania in the past, as drug traffickers have exploited the lack of strong governance in the post-communist country. »After coming to power in 2013, the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s left-wing Socialist Party 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), representing more than two-thirds of the country’s annual gross domestic product at the time. In 2014, a police officer was fatally shot during a crackdown operation carried out in a village in the south of the country using armored personnel carriers. The police came under fire from automatic weapons and rockets fired by drug growers. Albania remains one of the main transit routes for hard drugs. The police still crack down on isolated cases of cannabis cultivation, but much less frequently than they did ten years ago.».

Legalization of medical cannabis in Albania

Albanian lawmakers have begun their work to legalized medical cannabis last summer while drafting a proposal. At the time, the bill provided very few details on how the new medical cannabis program would be regulated.

«The purpose of this law is to establish rules governing the cultivation, production, and controlled distribution of the cannabis plant and its byproducts for medical and industrial purposes, through licensed entities and under the supervision of the National Agency for the Control and Oversight of the Cultivation and Processing of the Cannabis Plant for Medical and Industrial Purposes and the Production of Its Byproducts,» the bill stated.

Following the passage of the measure this week, it seems that little has changed. It is unclear how medical cannabis will be regulated, but the government believes that authorizing limited cannabis production could increase the country’s tax revenue.