CBD Is No Longer A “Narcotic” In Slovakia

The country becomes the last in the EU to remove cannabidiol from its national list of “psychotropics” and to legalize its use.

While there are often kudos paid to being “first” – in anything, and far from cannabis – there are also those who deserve attention for taking the tortoise route – especially when they finally get there. Slovakia has now joined the rest of the EU and finally seen the light on CBD.

As of March 18, the Ministry of Health submitted a proposal to legalize CBD on the grounds that according to the UN, CBD is not listed as a psychotropic medicine. The European Commission also decided the same last fall – but those are just the details in the weeds of all of this.

That said, because the country is also now watching what the EU will do on extracts and oils, it is also clear that there is starting to be a movement at the sovereign national level to normalizing the entire cannabis conversation – even if it starts with CBD. And that further, failing input from the democratic process domestically (citizens and advocates), the EU will begin to play an increasingly important role in setting policies that affect the entire industry and in every country in Europe.

Why Is the EU Level Bureaucracy Increasingly Important for Reform?

For those who are less than enthused about bureaucracy generally, the prospect of “reform” at the EU level, especially on this issue, is a groan fest. This particular part of the world is the least democratic, most paper-strewn, rules-driven part of the planet. Federal U.S. politics look “easy” compared to this. 

Anyone with any experience in waiting for the EU-level coordinated Covid vaccine to roll out any time soon (in other words everyone) can understand viscerally what the holdups have been on the cannabis front.

However, just like the overdue attention, those at the top of things are getting on the vaccine discussion, the cannabis conversation now brewing is fundamental and increasingly inescapable.

The issues of homogenizing the market, on standards, from simple hemp and CBD oil to medicine and beyond that, full and final reform are finally on the table.

Slovakia, in other words, might be the last to recognize what CBD actually is – but it is coming at a time when further discussions, and of a watershed kind – not just in one European country – but all of them – are taking place. And it is, of course, long overdue.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the International Cannabis Business Conference investor forum in Austin and of course, when the International Cannabis Business Conference returns to Berlin in July!