Georgian Parliament Does Not Support the Abolition of Detention for Marijuana Use

TBILISI – The Georgian Parliament voted down a bill on the removal of detention for marijuana use from the Criminal Code at the plenary session on Wednesday.

Adoption of the bill by MP Goga Khachidze lacked 3 votes; 47 voted in favor and 21 against it. Adoption of a bill, together with the support of the majority of participants, needs at least one third of the votes in favor of the 150-member Parliament.

Though the final draft of the bill did not include decriminalization of marijuana consumption, the Legal Committee endorsed the bill to be voted at plenary session only because it included the note which said that in case of repeating the crime, a person with an administrative penalty or sentenced for illegal consumption of marijuana, would be punished under criminal law but wouldn’t be sentenced to prison.

The current edition of the Criminal Code, together with imprisonment, includes other sanctions for a person with an administrative penalty or sentenced for illegal consumption of marijuana for example: a fine or community service for 120-180 hours.

The proposed amendment in Administrative Code, Article 45, envisages that the first use of marijuana should be fined only100 GEL instead of 500 and a 15-day administrative detention should not be applied to for the use of soft drugs (cannabis, cannabis resin and marijuana).