Yesterday, the Georgian Constitutional Court revoked administrative punishment for consumption of marijuana, taking note of the high degree of disproportionality between the consumption of the drug and its legal penalty. The decision to abolish administrative punishment for the use of marijuana essentially means that doing so is now legal in Georgia.
PanArmenian reports
The Constitutional Court of Georgia has released a statement on the decision made on Monday, July 30 regarding the use of marijuana, effectively abolishing administrative punishment for the use of the drug, Georgia Today reports.
“According to the applicants (Zurab Japaridze and Vakhtang Megrelishvili), the consumption of marijuana is not an act of social threat. In particular, it can only harm the users’ health, making that user him/herself responsible for the outcome. The responsibility for such actions does not cause dangerous consequences for the public.”
The Constitutional Court of Georgia noted that permission to consume marijuana is an act of protection of the person’s right to free development, and while prohibition of consumption of marijuana is an action directed against its turnover and therefore serves the legitimate aim of consumer protection of health, according to the Court, the role of an individual user in the support of marijuana circulation is very small, and consequently the threats from individual consumption are likewise small. Due to the above, the punishment for consumption of marijuana is disproportionate.”
The court takes into account certain exceptions for today’s decision in cases when the use of marijuana creates threats to third parties.
“In addition, the Constitutional Court highlights the imposition of responsibility of marijuana consumption when it creates a threat to third parties. For instance, the Court will justify responsibility when marijuana is consumed in educational institutions, public places, such as on public transport, and in the presence of children”, stated the Court.
Zurab Japaridze congratulated everyone on the decision made today on July 30, 2018.
“I would like to congratulate everybody on the decision made by the Constitutional Court. Through this decision, Georgia became a freer country. Administrative punishment for consumption of marijuana was revoked by the Constitutional Court, which means that consumption of marijuana in Georgia is now legal,” said Japaridze.
He noted that it is the duty of individuals to go about the use of marijuana in a responsible manner, keeping other smoking legislations and laws under consideration, as these will still apply.
The Eurasian nation of Georgia, in removing civil and criminal penalties for the consumption of marijuana joins a number of other nations which have done likewise, such as Canada and some states in the United States of America, most notable of which is Colorado. Dispropotionality between the punishments that are commonly inflicted for the use of the drug are something of an understatement, as, in many case, they result in effectively doing irreparable harm to the lives of vast numbers of people, far more so than the harm that the drug is alleged to cause, and which has sparked a drug war which gives pretext to violating the civil liberties of citizens through expanded police state type behaviour on the part of law enforcement.
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