The future of Czech medicinal cannabis in 2024
Added on 12 January 2024
Since the parliament in Prague legalized medical cannabis back in 2013, the Czech Republic has led one of the most successful medicinal cannabis programs within the European Union. According to the State Agency for Medical Cannabis (SAKL), the Czech medical cannabis program has helped up to 4,601 patients with their medical conditions by January 2022, having started with just 434 patients three years earlier. Benefitting from a regulatory price of 6.49 € per gram in the medicinal market, the Czech Republic has experienced an exponential growth in medical cannabis sales every consecutive year since legalization in 2013. 109.4 kg of medical cannabis have been released to Czech patients in 2021, representing an increase of 61% compared to the previous year.
Despite the resounding success of the Czech medical cannabis program, the cannabis black market in Czechia has reached unprecedented levels, estimated to be worth 630 million USD in 2022.
Addressing himself to criminals involved in the black market, National Drug Coordinator Jindřich Vobořil declared the following :
“The cannabis black market is growing across Europe. In the Czech Republic, we seem to have reached your ceiling and I don’t see many other options to stop you from working other than taking your demand and putting it in the hands of legal sellers. This is what happened in Canada, for example, where 70% of the black market has been taken over by the legal market in the last five years”.
Whether or not the appearance of a regulated adult-use market in the Czech Republic will yield the same results as in Canada, the effects of such an initiative are certain for the medicinal market.
“Based on the higher levels of competition we are expecting to see, we presume medical cannabis and CBD prices will naturally go down domestically”, reports Alex Khourdaji from Prohibition Partners.
As such, the growth potential of the medicinal cannabis market in this Eastern European country will at least double if Prague will take the next step and legalize recreational use.
AUTHOR: DANIEL CIUREA
Photo: aleksandarlittlewolf / FreePik
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