Albanian Prime Minister: We Will Legalize Medical Cannabis Cultivation

It is no secret that a lot of cannabis is smuggled through Albania prior to making its way across the European continent. No one knows how much cannabis is smuggled via the popular route, however, it’s likely a safe assumption that it’s a lot.

Like many countries around the globe that are synonymous with the unregulated cannabis trade, Albania is in the process of exploring how to reform its cannabis laws. As we previously reported, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reopened the topic of medical cannabis legalization earlier this year.

Albania appears to be moving closer to legalizing medical cannabis cultivation according to local media reports this month. Per Euronews Albania:

Albania will legalize the cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes, declared PM Edi Rama on Thursday after revealing the results of the National Consultation survey.

61% or over 309,000 out of some 500,00 respondents said ‘yes’ to legalizing medical marijuana, and 29% said ‘no’.

That would see the decriminalization of cultivating, processing, and state-controlled export of cannabis.

The survey mentioned in the excerpt was performed using online and traditional paper gathering methodology and was conducted between mid-January and the end of March.

It is still unclear what framework a potential Albanian medical cannabis program would be built upon. Albania’s Prime Minister previously indicated that medical cannabis cultivation would mainly be geared toward exports, which would be unfortunate if so.

Albania would definitely benefit economically from ramping up medical cannabis exports, however, suffering patients in Albania also need safe access to legal medical cannabis. Only time will tell whether that happens or not.