Cacti fans high, cannabis cultivators low on Czech drug changes

Czech growers of cacti which contain the hallucinogen mescaline will no longer risk criminal punishment under changes to drugs legislation agreed by the Cabinet on Wednesday.

As a result of the changes, cacti, as well as mushrooms containing high levels of mescaline, are taken off a drugs black list, meaning that possession or cultivation of more than small amounts of them will no longer be treated as a punishable crime.

Thorny issue

The move follows protests in 2009 by amateur cactus growers who had no intention of consuming their plants for the heady experiences offered. They said they were being made into criminals by changes to the national drugs rules which at the time clarified the possession and use of what types and amounts of various plants and substances would be regarded in future as criminal and civil offences.

The same moves de-criminalized the growing and use of a small amount of marihuana or cannabis for personal use but it still remained an offence and subject to fairly stiff fines.

Stricter cannabis measures

Wednesday’s rules changes actually stiffen the current rules for marihuana or cannabis through a new method for calculating the content of the main chemical psychotic substance in the plant,  tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) also known as delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol.

Instead of measuring the content of the chemical content in the whole plant, including the stem and where the chemical content is low, the new calculation will just be made concerning the upper, flowering, part of the plant and leaves where it is concentrated. This gives a chemical concentration four to five times higher than the previous method.

The Ministry of Justice argues that the change brings Czech practices into line with that of most other European countries’ criminal and drugs legislation and will mean that cultivation of some cannabis plants with a low overall content level of psychotic chemical will not escape the drug enforcers. 

This is NOT true. Facts:

1. The cacti were only taken off the list of prohibited plants. Growing them for the purpose of ingestion is still illegal.

2. No mushrooms contain mescaline.

3. Mushrooms which contain psilocybin were NOT taken off the black list

...On the other hand, plants containing DMT and 5-MeO-DMT were in fact taken off the plants black list, just like the mescaline cacti.... In short, just another mess as politicians enter the fray : (