Albania urged to implement medical cannabis reform after UN criticism

It might be difficult for most people to locate Albania on a map (it’s a coastal country just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy), but what just happened there is certainly unique in the legalization discussion. After being named the seventh worst country in the world for illegal cannabis activities, the government decided to legalize medicinal cannabis.

The law entitled “Control of the cultivation and processing of the cannabis plant and the production of its by-products for medical and industrial purposes” is now online.

The status of the legislation

The bill doesn’t go into many details other than its intention to regulate cannabis production for medicinal purposes and for export. Further details that have now surfaced in the press coverage of the situation mention that the permit will be granted for greenhouses and other secured, covered areas up to 150 hectares and will be valid for a maximum of 15 years. Businesses must also have working capital of approximately $85,000, have at least 15 employees, and pay a state levy of 1.5% of annual business revenue.

By far the most interesting thing about such developments, however, is that this bill was specifically triggered by the high ranking Albania has ‘achieved’ in the recent UN Report on Drugs and Crime. The fact that the country was actually named after the “Balkan route” for the heroin trade from Pakistan to western countries, including across the Adriatic to Italy, doesn’t help matters.

The bill will now be publicly commented on and then forwarded to Parliament.

Opposition groups are furious, calling the development irresponsible and claiming it will only allow more illegal cultivation. Enkelejd Alibeaj, an MP and leader of one of the two political groups now opposing the reform, also accused the prime minister of softening on the matter even after his former interior minister is in jail for involvement in “criminal groups” involved in cannabis trafficking. “

Many criminal gangs have also moved their production indoors to avoid detection.

About a third of the 8,328 Albanians charged with cannabis trafficking between 2013 and 2019 were actually convicted.

In contrast, the government believes this law will allow them to control the legal industry — and even generate much-needed foreign export earnings.

Eradication of the black market through medical reform

While this law is admirable and definitely overdue, it may well not achieve what it intends to do. On the other hand, which legalization efforts have gone smoothly everywhere so far? Right next door is North Macedonia in a similar location. However, medical cannabis reform has not been the windfall it had hoped for, in large part due to the complexities of exporting this narcotic to the EU – and the Balkans – from a non-European country.

However, it is clearly a step into an unavoidable position.

The History of Cannabis in Albania

Albania is no stranger to large-scale cannabis cultivation. In fact, it became a big part of the economy after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the country’s economic situation collapsed. The illegal, if initially localized, industry was later invaded by a series of increasingly powerful and violent gangs. This period peaked around 2016 – the same year that Albania was named as one of the largest illegal producers in the world. Although there was a concerted international effort to stop this over the next year, little was accomplished other than pushing traffickers to more remote areas and using additional evasion techniques.

The Albanian government has also worked with international police forces to try to use military force to stop the problem. In fact, with the help of Italian reconnaissance flights, authorities between 2013 and 2019 identified 613 hectares (1,514 acres) of land planted with cannabis, much of it in the southern village of Lazarat, dubbed “Europe’s cannabis capital.” In a country that is only 2.9 million hectares, that is a significant area.

In such an environment, it will be interesting to see the impact of legalizing at least medicinal cultivation — especially as the whole issue of cannabis reform advances internationally.

The recent UN report on international drugs and crime was also controversial for its claims of increased cannabis use and the reasons behind it. It appears that in the week after Germany concluded its own recreational cannabis reform hearings, it may have had a visceral impact on at least one country’s reform plan.