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2019.08.10 02:03 GMT+8

Luxembourg on path to being first European country to legalise cannabis

Updated 2019.08.10 02:03 GMT+8
CGTN

Luxembourg could be the first European country to legalise cannabis production and consumption, and has called for an ease of the drug policies across Europe.

The country’s minister of health Etienne Schneider said the ban on cannabis did not deter its users from accessing and consuming it, saying it infact made people more curious.

“This drug policy we had over the last 50 years did not work,” Schneider told Politico. “Forbidding everything made it just more interesting to young people … I’m hoping all of us will get a more open-minded attitude toward drugs.”

The plan to legalise cannabis in Luxembourg was announced earlier this year, but the government is not just looking to make the drug accessible to everyone.

The government plans to institute a highly regulated structure behind it, covering aspects such as age restrictions, taxes, and quality checks. A draft legislation is expected to be presented later this year, providing details on the future framework behind the legalisation.

Schneider said the legislation was likely to include a ban on non-residents purchasing cannabis in order to bar drug tourism.

Home growing is also likely to be prohibited.

Once the reversal of the ban is put into effect, Luxembourg would join Canada, Uruguay and 11 U.S. states in flouting a U.N. convention on the control of narcotic drugs which commits signatories to limit “exclusively for medical and scientific purposes the production, manufacture, export, import distribution, trade, employment and possession of drugs” including cannabis.

Luxembourg plans to institute a highly regulated structure behind the legalisation of cannabis, covering aspects such as age restrictions, taxes, and quality checks.

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