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In April 2023, the Czech government unveiled a new, ambitious action plan to fight addictions that integrated the country’s already existing “national strategy to prevent and reduce harm associated with addictive behaviour”.
Just over a year later, and long before the two policy documents expire (in 2025 and 2027 respectively), doubts are being raised over the government’s alignment with its own declared war on addictions. The country’s long-awaited draft regulation of recreational cannabis seems to be set to fall short of expectations, and a new amendment bill is feared to end up pushing Czech vapers back to cigarette smoking.
Coming up short on nicotine and cannabis addiction
According to the Addiction Policy Action Plan for 2023-2025, government priorities should include, among others, the prevention and treatment of addictions, the creation of a regulated market for substances with addictive potential, and an effective tax collection that takes into account the level of risk attached to substances.
At the same time, based on the principles of this action plan, the government should be pursuing harm reduction when it comes to protecting public health from the consequences of addiction to smoking.
Yet, as far as cannabis is concerned, the country’s upcoming Cannabis Management Act will likely focus on the decriminalisation of self-cultivation only, dropping the other two draft pillars of the expected legislation, which also introduced a cannabis club distribution system and, more ambitiously, a regulated cannabis market.
This means that the two parts of the cannabis regulation draft that would have helped control and address addiction through a cannabis association distribution model similar to the German one, which requires clubs to hire trained staff to aid in addiction prevention, and make the cannabis market legal and controlled, are not even likely to be discussed in Parliament.
When it comes to smoking and vaping, on the other hand, a draft decree banning flavours other than tobacco in vaping products and introducing strict packaging requirements making vaping products less attractive is being fought by local industry and consumer associations who fear it will end up destroying the vaping sector and leading vapers who previously smoked to turn back to traditional cigarettes.
The national anti-drug coordinator’s legacy
Exiting national anti-drug coordinator Jindřich Vobořil is among the supporters of an ambitious cannabis regulation based on a market model.
He has also criticised the proposal for a ban on flavours in vapes, saying that it contradicts the addiction action plan adopted by the government as well as its national strategy on addictions, as e-cigarettes are a less-harmful alternative to traditional smoking.
But Vobořil resigned from his position, effective from the end of August, and it is not clear whether his successor will follow in his footsteps, despite calls in this sense from both within and outside the country.
Also in August, 76 experts from 27 countries urged the Czech government to keep implementing Vobořil’s proposals for addiction prevention.
At the same time, an online petition launched by the Chamber of Electronic Vaping (Kevap) industry association is asking the government to drop the proposed ban on vaping flavours other than tobacco while suggesting other potential measures against youth vaping.
Will the government listen?
– Tiziana Cauli TobaccoIntelligence staff
Photo: AI-generated
