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On December 22, 2016 the
Constitutional Court of
Georgia regarding dried
marijuana declares
unconstitutional the
imprisonment under the both:
administrative and criminal
responsibility. Under the
Administrative Delinquency
Code (Article 45) the use of
imprisonment declared
unconstitutional for illegal
acquisition or possession of
small amounts of drugs
without a purpose of
distribution, and/or their
use without doctor’s
prescription; And under the
Criminal Code (Article 273)
the use of imprisonment for
illegal manufacturing,
purchase and storage.
The judgment technically is
a cause of Ombudsman of
Georgia’s lawsuit which has
been filed on June 2016, to
the Constitutional Court,
demanding almost full
decriminalization of all
drugs. However on December
22, 2016 the Court declared
the case partly admissible
and noted that the plaintiff
failed to prove why other
punishments under the
Criminal Code such as the
fine and community service
should not be imposed. On
the admissibility |
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stage such declaration from the
Court can be already regarded as
not a good sign and promising
one. At least it is already
clear that from this lawsuit
there is no perspective that
full decriminalization of all
drugs will happen.
The judgment of December 22,
2016 is basically a repercussion
of the previous judgments such
as Tsikarishvili v. Parliament
and the Supreme Court's
references
(#N771,775,776,777,786,787,788),
which already has been found
that under the Article 260 of
the Criminal Code a purchase or
possession of dried marijuana up
to 70 grams for personal
purposes had been regarded
disproportional and as torture,
inhuman and degrading treatment
and punishment, and under
Article 273 of the Criminal Code
imprisonment for marijuana use
was also found to be
unconstitutional. The
Constitutional Court while
delivering the admissibility
judgment of December 22 case
primarily noted that it had
already found a violation of
Article 17 of the Constitution
in the cases of Tsikarishvili v.
Parliament and the Supreme
Court's a number of references
and this case technically gives
the grounds to declare the
unconstitutionality of the above
mentioned prohibited activities.
From the recent judgments of the
Constitutional Court, can be
mainly concluded that currently
there is no responsibility in
terms of jail under either
administrative or criminal one
for purchase or possession of
dried marijuana up to 70 grams,
use of marijuana or its
manufacturing for personal
purposes. But still: under
administrative code there is a
fine in the amount of 500 GEL,
under the Criminal Code also
fine in the amount of at least
1000 GEL and the community
service for dried marijuana’s
illegal manufacturing, purchase,
storage or illegal consumption
without medical prescription of
drugs, their analogues or
precursors in small quantity for
personal consumption.
Recent developments in Georgia
indicates a rather increasing
demands from the society to the
drug policy liberalization, thus
as towards the decriminalization
of all drugs and the
legalization of marijuana. In
this conjuncture many cases
still are pending in the
Constitutional Court for
decriminalization and
legalization. Regarding the
legalization the opposition
party New Political Centre -
Girchi leader Zurab Japaridze
sees the legalization of
marijuana as one of the most
effective tool towards the
economic boost and prosperity of
the country and on 31 December
the eve of the New Year as a
protest against the government,
with more than 500 registered
sowers and thousands of
supporters plans to plant the
seed of marijuana right in the
office of his political party.
The Girchi already with this
actions gained significant
popularity and attracted
thousands of official supporters
via official facebook page.
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