By way of Cannareporter
A journalist within the Czech Republic has been discovered responsible of ‘inciting drug dependancy’ having printed {a magazine} to coach individuals about hashish.
Journalist Robert Veverka, director of the Czech-based hashish journal Legalizace, was convicted this week of ‘inciting the abuse of addictive substances’ and ‘spreading drug dependancy by his journal’.
In what has been described as an ‘assault on freedom of knowledge and expression’, the Czech courts look like in contradiction with the nation’s current progressive strategy to hashish.
Only a month in the past, authorities officers introduced the nation’s intention to legalise the adult-use of hashish.
Veverka had beforehand appealed a conviction and sentence handed to him throughout an preliminary trial in November 2021.
After greater than a 12 months of arm wrestling with justice, he was once more convicted by the Regional Courtroom of Ostrava on Thursday, 2 March for ‘spreading drug dependancy by his journal’.
The information was introduced yesterday by his good friend and enterprise companion Lukas Damage in a post on LinkedIn.
Picture: Lukas Damage/LinkedIn
It’s not but clear what the courtroom’s sentence was or whether or not Veverka now faces imprisonment.
Schooling is just not against the law
Chatting with Portugal-based hashish media outlet Cannareporter final 12 months, Veverka stated: “I used to be convicted due to a nasty legislation, which we name the ‘rubber legislation’, as a result of it is vitally versatile. It features a paragraph which says that the promotion of unlawful substances, excluding alcohol, could be thought-about against the law.”
In accordance with the journalist: “It was a double course of: each I and my firm, answerable for modifying the journal, had been sued.”
Authorized proceedings started in the summertime of 2020 and had been dropped at trial within the District Courtroom of Bruntál on 3 November 2021, after which each had been discovered responsible.
The courtroom noticed that ‘just one article would have been sufficient [for the court] to search out me responsible of selling an unlawful drug,’ Veverka defined.
The Legalizace journal, based in 2010, was the Czech Republic’s first hashish journal and aimed to offer details about all facets involving the cultivation of hemp and using the plant. Its content material included articles on the medicinal properties of the plant and hurt discount, amongst different associated points.
All through his authorized battle, Veverka has regularly used the slogan: ‘schooling is just not against the law’.
“Present legal guidelines and prohibition within the Czech Republic trigger extra issues than hashish itself,” Veverka instructed Cannareporter in 2021.
He has skilled this first-hand together with his case being an instance of the deprivation of freedom of knowledge, expression and censorship in a ‘democratic’ Europe.
Who’s Robert Veverka?
Along with his roles as director, editor and journalist, Veverka can also be a political activist and president of the NGO Legalizace.cz. He’s a member of the Fee for the Coordination of Drug Coverage of the Municipality of Prague and the Fee for Security and Schooling of the Municipality of Prague 2, and sits on the advisory board for CzecHemp and the property administration firm Commerce Centre Praha.
He’s additionally the editor of the journal Konopi and its English model, Hashish Remedy.
Veverka’s pals and colleagues at the moment are asking for help to assist him cowl his authorized prices and to proceed to champion unbiased hashish journalism.
You may donate to assist Veverka utilizing the main points under:
IBAN: CZ4320100000002900469065
BIC/SWIFT: FIOBCZPPXXX
Fio banka, as, V Celnici 1028/10, 117 21 Praha 1
This text was initially printed by Cannareporter and is reprinted right here with permission.