The bill to legalize hemp, which Croatian MPs are set to vote on on Thursday, is of "great public interest in terms of health, economic and environmental benefits," the bill's author, MP Mirela Holy of the opposition Social Democrats, told reporters.

“If we want to use the full potential of hemp, we must fully legalize and liberalize this plant, which has extraordinary economic potential, because some 25,000 to 75,000 different products can be made from it. It also has medical benefits, as proved by scientific research. In 2020 alone, more than 3,500 scientific papers were published in the United States on hemp’s health benefits,” said Holy, a member of the Social Democrats party.

Speaking of hemp’s environmental benefits, Holy said the plant is a very powerful soil cleaner, cleaning soil of toxins and chemicals, and that it absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide. She noted that hemp absorbs CO2 four times more than trees and can therefore be used in curbing climate change.

“This bill provides for full legalization and liberalization of hemp for medical, economic and industrial purposes. It is a progressive bill, because it allows cultivation for personal use of nine female plants in full bloom. This is roughly the number people that suffer from multiple sclerosis need to make sufficient amounts of preparations that will enable them to have a normal and dignified life,” Holy said.

The bill also provides for the use of hemp in the construction sector, for the production of bio-composite materials which could replace plastics as a major environmental problem.

“Canada, which legalized the use of hemp for recreational purposes in 2020, has generated $17 billion in revenues from recreational cannabis in 2021 and created 10,000 jobs directly and another 10,000 hemp-related jobs,” Holy said.