Greece: plans to legalize the cultivation of medical cannabis before Parliament

A bill laying the foundations for the regulation of medical cannabis cultivation in Greece was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

The project is jointly supported by the Ministries of Health, Economy, Agriculture and Justice, and seeks to free itself from medical cannabis imports by legalizing the production, possession, transport, storage, supply of raw material (cannabis seeds and specific varieties), processing and production of cannabis-based products for therapeutic use. The Greece has legalized the medical use of cannabis last year, but for the moment patients are relying on products from abroad.

Future growers must be over 21 years of age and have no drug-related criminal record. Cultivation areas will have to be at least 1.6 hectares in size, and will have to bring together in the same place the areas cultivated and those used for processing the product, in order to reduce the movement of the product.

A way to boost the Greek economy

Greece has made no secret of the fact that its cannabis ambitions could help to breathe new life into part of the country, by boosting domestic agricultural production and attracting foreign investment.

«The aim is to promote productive investments in this field that will benefit the economy and the state», explained Health Minister Andreas Xanthos, while Agriculture Minister Evangelos Apostolou noted that there is already «enormous interest» in investing in this sector. Apostolou forecasts an investment of over one billion euros, noting at the same time that the market is opening up in Europe.

One of Greece's major advantages is its climate and sunshine, which lend themselves tremendously well to cannabis cultivation.

In Veroia, northern Greece, a cannabis cultivation project is already underway, as reported by the’Independent. The site will create over 2,000 jobs, and has brought together a dozen investors from several countries, including Canada, Kazakhstan, Poland and Israel, for an initial round of financing worth 400 million euros.