Czech Republic: National Anti-Drug Coordinator supports cannabis social club model

The prime minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, announced the establishment of a working group composed of experts to discuss issues related to the legalization of adult cannabis use in the country, in a model that should follow that of neighboring Germany. Jindřich Vobořil, National Anti-Drug Coordinator, will be responsible for joining the panel and has shown himself to be a supporter of the social club model, according to some publications on his social networks.

Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Photo: DR

Although the Czech Republic has already given signs that it intends to move towards the legalization of recreational cannabis, it is now clearer how the country's government intends to do so. Anti-Drug Coordinator Jindřich Vobořil, will set up a working group to carry out the evaluation on the implementation of recreational cannabis, similar to what happened in Germany.

Vobořil, who is an advocate of cannabis social clubs, stated in a Facebook post that he wants to “keep cannabis clubs until my last breath. I find this model very useful, at least in the early years.”

The coordinator also shared a video where he makes some considerations about this model.

In contact with Germany

Although there is no complete understanding of the various measures that each country intends to apply, Jindřich Vobořil assumed that he is “in direct contact with our colleagues in Germany and we have repeatedly confirmed that we want to coordinate”. The official also stated that there will only be news about this assessment in the next year.

Visiting Cannabis Social Clubs

The Czech National Anti-Drug Coordinator, who visited a cannabis club in Barcelona last week, confirmed that he had become a member, despite not being a consumer. According to Jindřich Vobořil, social clubs “should be part of the regulatory model proposed in the Czech Republic”, having carried out the visit to check how they work (how do they accept members and what is the atmosphere in the space).

Despite the positive considerations regarding the environment of the spaces, in the view of the Czech official, some answers are still lacking, mainly in relation to supply and production, but also in relation to the teams that work in these spaces. He further states that in economic terms the structuring “needs to be clearly defined. It seems that keeping everything unprofitable is not very easy in the long run,” he concluded.