Last week, the Belgian government agreed to decriminalize the personal use of marijuana.
According to the new regulations, citizens will now be allowed to cultivate and smoke marijuana for personal use, but will not be allowed to sell it or buy it in the country. Citizens who flagrantly smoke marijuana in public will be open to possible prosecution under Belgian “social nuisance” laws.
Paul Geerts, a spokesman for the Consumer Affairs and Health Ministry, said the government will not allow for marijuana to be purchased in cafes, as is the practice in the neighboring Netherlands, but stated people who wished to obtain marijuana could “grow it for yourself or … buy it in the Netherlands (about an hour away from the Belgian border).”
“This is a policy that is being followed in many of the countries in the European Union,” said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. “We are not penalizing individual users of cannabis, but we are concentrating on production, distribution or problematic use.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751.
