Indopedia All Things Marijuana
On Nov. 30, the highest court in the Republic of Georgia ruled that criminal prosecution for consuming cannabis was against the nation’s constitution. The historic decision decriminalized marijuana consumption for the citizens of the former Soviet nation.
The catalyst responsible for this momentous act of reform originated from a Georgian man named Givi Shanidze, who had a criminal case against him for repeated marijuana use. Shanidze felt that it was his personal choice to smoke cannabis, so he filed a complaint with the constitutional court with the support of the Girchi political party, arguing that prosecuting an individual for the consumption of cannabis was against basic human rights. The court agreed and now parliamentarians are tasked with adopting this decision into law.
“We started this case a couple of months ago,” said Zurab Japaridze, the chairman of Girchi, in an interview with Marijuana.com. “We claimed that punishing people for just smoking marijuana is unconstitutional and goes against human rights.”
Japaridze added that although the court’s decision is “a huge step forward,” Girchi is not yet satisfied with the current status of…
