Earlier this year, Luxembourg’s government that the country would become the first in Europe to legalise the recreational use and possession of cannabis. New details of what the country’s new legal cannabis industry will look like.
According to a draft bill, adults will be able to purchase cannabis seeds from shops around the country. The government is also not planning to limit the number of cannabis seeds that an individual can acquire and possess, nor to provide for THC level thresholds in the seeds.
When it comes to personal consumption, it has already been reported that a household will be allowed to have up to four plants – all of them to be grown from seeds purchased in one of the future stores or online.
The government is emphasising that it’s four plants per household and not four plants per person.
It is also really important that while an adult will be able to grow their plants inside and outside of their home (balcony, terrace, garden, etc), the ban on consumption in public won’t be overruled. Furthermore, selling cannabis remains prohibited as well.
Meanwhile, Luxembourg is planning to change their law and impose a much lighter guideline for handling cannabis offences in the future. For example, the fine for the consumption, possessing, and/or transportation of three grams or less of cannabis in public will be a fraction of the current amounts now in place.
Rather than handing out a ticket for between €251 and €2500, the fine for a cannabis offence will be between €25 and €500.
It is important though that above the three-gram threshold, the offender is considered a drug dealer.
Also, the zero-tolerance policy behind the wheel will not be changed – the penal sanctions for a road traffic offence will be between the imprisonment of eight days and three years, and also a fine of up to €10,000.
When it announced its new policy regarding recreational cannabis use, Luxembourg’s government revealed that the changes were due to the failure of prohibition in curbing the use, production, and supply of cannabis.
Possession and use of the drug were decriminalised back in 2001, and medical cannabis has been relatively accessible for many citizens since its legalisation in 2018.
