Greece: Deputy Environment Minister calls for legalization of cannabis

Greece is one of the last European countries to have legalized the medical use of cannabis, last July.

While the legal medical cannabis industry is not yet fully developed, the debate over the legalization of recreational cannabis has begun.

When from his visit on Greek television, Yiannis Tsironis, Deputy Minister of the Environment and Energy, stated that cannabis should be grown legally, «even on a private balcony,» provided that the person in question pays a fee to the government and adheres to a limit on the number of plants.

Yiannis Tsironis, a member of the Greek Ecologist Party who joined Syriza, also provided some insight into the government’s current work on the recreational legalization bill, noting that such a bill was not yet in the works.

He also stated that the issue of drug use in Greece needed to be addressed, and that the only way to do so was to provide users with the means to obtain drugs legally and to offer them places where they could use them, such as safe consumption rooms.

For now, cannabis can be prescribed in Greece for conditions such as muscle spasms, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and cancer.