The Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardic and official Mirela Holy on Friday presented the plan of this Opposition party for the complete legalisation of the use of hemp, which they said would contribute to the economic growth and development of agriculture and tourism in Croatia.

“We hold that the liberalisation and legalisation, controlled by the state, would make an additional impetus to economic growth, and the revenues earned this way could be used for creation of new jobs,” the leader of the strongest Opposition party told a news conference in Zagreb.

He said that the latest amendments to the legislation on prevention of drug abuse whereby some segments of the use of hemp for industrial purposes have been legalised cannot lead to the full usage of the potential of hemp.

Holy underscores that there is growing interest in the legalisation of hemp use, however the recent legislative amendments did not facilitate the efforts in that direction.

The SDP officials spoke how locally grown hemp could be used in building materials and also for producing eco-friendly hemp plastic.

Bernardic said that “the use of hemp can alleviate numerous symptoms of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and malignant diseases”.

In this context he said that countries such as Canada, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic have annual revenues on aggregate in the amount of $55 billion due to the hemp legalisation.

The legalisation of hemp has a positive impact on the tourist trade, as enjoying freely cannabis can attract new guests, Bernadic said mentioning the example of Amsterdam.

The SDP-sponsored proposal envisages that every adult Croat can grow a maximum nine hemp plants.

The proposal, drawn up by the SDP green development council, also envisages the formation a a hemp agency as a regulatory authority.

The proposed legislation is now to be discussed by other SDP members before it is put up for public consultation.