Prague, 5 May 2021 – Unfortunately, today's constitutional court resolution preserves the ambiguity of the sections of the Criminal Code in the field of substance handling by leaving the term 'quantity greater than small'.

The Pirates still see this as a problematic aspect, even though they welcomed at least today's confirmation of the exclusive power of legislators to determine the limits of substance control in the Czech Republic, which results from the abolition of the government's ability to determine by regulation what amount of addictive substance constitutes the limit of the crime. On the initiative of the District Court in Chrudim, constitutional judges today discussed the possible unconstitutionality of the use of the phrase "quantity greater than small" in the Criminal Code in relation to the amount of a prohibited addictive substance, the possession or cultivation of which is already a criminal offence. According to the Chrudim court, the complicated nature of determining the content of psychotropic substances used to assess whether the amount is "greater than small" does not allow citizens to properly predict the possible criminality of substance abuse. Pirates have also long pointed to this unpredictability of the law.However, the Constitutional Court has decided not to rescheduce this concept on the grounds that it is already well established in case law, even with the unifying opinion of the Supreme Court. It repealed only a provision authorising the Government of the Czech Republic by order to determine which plants and fungi contain intoxicating and psychotropic substances and what amount of these substances constitutes the limit of the crime. Pirates MP Tomáš Vymazal added: "While I am not pleased with the constitutional court's decision itself, I welcome at least the fact that constitutional judges also abolished the possibility of the Government of the Czech Republic by decree to determine how much naming or psychotropic substance is greater than small, the means of making it clear that the threshold of criminality in relation to the handling of a certain amount of addictive substance can only be determined by legislators. This represents at least a small step towards enabling a more systematic and long-term policy on the regulation of psychotropic substances."" In the future, the Constitutional Court's resolution will potentially make it possible to consider any case where the amount for personal use is clearly not exceeded many times as an offence. However, when committing an offence, citizens still face a fine and also the confiscation of the property. This is not the only why the Pirate Party continues to fight for the regulated legalization of the treatment of psychotropic substances," janek Michailidu, head of the interdepartmental behavior team, said on the topic.Although there has been no desired change, pirates also perceive other aspects of the Constitutional Court's resolution and consider them another indication that legislators should determine the appropriate form of regulation of psychotropic substances. They should clearly determine what quantities of these substances czech citizens can hold or grow without risking criminal penalties. This is what the Pirates have been striving for for a long time, and members will be given the opportunity to clearly anchor these quantities in the third reading of the government's amendment to the Substance Abuse Act in the second half of May.