Poland: Krakow mayoral candidate wants to decriminalize cannabis

Last Sunday saw the first round of municipal elections in Poland. In Krakow, the country's second largest city, one of the shortlisted candidates, young Konrad Berkowicz representing the far-right Liberté party, proposed decriminalizing the possession of small quantities of cannabis. This measure would only apply in the municipality, which hopes to gain autonomy on this issue, as it recently did on the sale of alcohol.

Inspired by this measure, which bans the sale of alcohol after a certain hour and comes into force on January 1, 2019, the candidate is proposing decriminalization on its Facebook page:

«Recently, the city of Krakow succeeded in obtaining autonomy for the municipality to ban or not sell alcohol. We would like to obtain similar autonomy to stop punishing Krakow residents for possessing small amounts of cannabis. Alcohol and marijuana can be addictive. However, drinking a beer is not a sufficient reason to sentence someone to prison. Similarly, there's no reason to punish someone for smoking a joint. Occasional cannabis use has become commonplace among the under-30 generation. Treating them as criminals, as the law does, is reckless and harmful. We want to take a leaf out of the U.S. book to enable new solutions in this area in our country. It turns out that it's not fair and effective to imprison people who use cannabis, and that other methods of combating drug addiction are much more effective.»

Poland legalized medical cannabis last July. However, its laws remain quite tough on the adult use of cannabis. Although drug consumption is not considered an offence, possession is punishable by prison sentences ranging from one to ten years, depending on the quantity. Moreover, no distinction is made in law between cannabis and other drugs, although in practice there may be a degree of tolerance towards cannabis users.