Georgia legalizes cannabis use

Yesterday, July 30, 2018, the Constitutional Court of Georgia (the country, not the U.S. state) ruled. verdict history: cannabis prohibition is unconstitutional and therefore no longer valid.

A historic verdict

Like in South Africa, No political or citizen action was taken. Only the Constitutional Council has decided the fate of the plant in this Balkan nation. Indeed, the Georgian Constitution states in Article 16 that the freedom of every individual to develop his or her own personality is paramount, and having determined that the simple consumption of cannabis does no harm to anyone other than the user concerned, the Constitutional Court therefore ruled that it was no longer possible to arrest, prosecute or worry people for consuming cannabis. This measure applies retroactively and supersedes all previous court or administrative rulings contradicting it.

The Georgian Constitutional Court had previously ruled that penalties for growing and possessing cannabis were unconstitutional.

Harm to third parties

However, this decision is only valid if the consumption does not harm anyone. This includes consumption by a responsible individual of something that requires maximum attention, but also consumption in enclosed public places such as buses or trains, and consumption around minors. What's more, there will be no regulated sales and purchasing circuit, at least for the time being, as this decision only concerns simple use. Cannabis is still considered a narcotic, but the state no longer considers the user to be «responsible» for trafficking.

This is not real regulation, but the Court's decision already goes beyond decriminalization, since the user will not be fined or even apprehended.