Advocates for the decriminalization of marijuana use on Thursday demanded that government agencies stop waging a “war on cannabis” as they prepare for the annual 420 Green Sensation rally and street festival on April 20.
Lawyer Zoe Lee (李菁琪) said that a crackdown on the drug is misguided and a waste of resources that harasses people over minor offenses.
Lee said that the law was an infringement on human rights and police action was systematic abuse.
Photo: Taipei Times
More than 500 search warrants have been issued in the crackdown on cannabis, she said.
“In one case, an individual was searched based on his online purchase of smoking devices, but he bought them two years ago,” she said.
The theme of this year’s Green Sensation is “Weed Are Family,” Lee said, adding that the event organizers have reached funding targets and are ready for a rally demanding that cannabis be decriminalized.
The High Prosecutors’ Office and the National Police Agency on Thursday said in a statement that an operation that began on Tuesday called “Strike Operation on Cannabis Narcotics” had resulted in searches at 402 locations, the apprehension of 290 suspected cannabis users, and the seizure of 2.65kg of cannabis products, with 81 prosecutors and 1,651 police officers mobilized.
Chinese-language media in the past few days have reported that among those apprehended were the wife of a former guitarist of rock band F.I.R. as well as doctors, athletes and civil servants.
“Prosecutors applied to local courts across Taiwan for 519 search warrants, with judges approving 435 of them and searches at 402,” the statement said.
Cannabis is a Category 2 narcotic as defined in the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), it said, adding that “it is a serious offense to produce, transport, traffic, sell or cultivate cannabis plants, while consumption is also a criminal offense.”
“People must not consume cannabis and should not perpetrate the trend in popular culture,” it said.
However, Green Sensation organizers said in their own statement yesterday that the war on cannabis is misguided and an unfair action targeting young people.
The authorities are working with the media to vilify users and colluding with irresponsible doctors to spread the falsehood that smoking cannabis leads to panic attacks, hallucinations, an unstable emotional state and mental disorders, they said.
“We denounce the Ministry of Justice and prosecutors for conducting a witch hunt and vilifying people as addicts, which puts law-abiding people in a bad light,” they said.
“Banning cannabis use causes more danger and problems than making it legal,” group spokesman Chung Ho-yun (鍾和耘) said.
“Cannabis has been illegal in Taiwan for more than 70 years, so its going to take a long time to clear up the misconceptions of the drug and end discrimination of users,” Chung said. “We need more people to join the push for decriminalization and to tell society that medical use of the drug should be legalized.”
Moreover, the limits on cannabidiol levels in pharmaceutical drugs should be lifted, the organizers said.
The trend in advanced countries, as well as many US states, is to decriminalize cannabis for medical and recreational use, it said, adding that Germany has passed a law — which is to come into effect next month — legalizing use, with people over 18 years old to be allowed to possess up to 25g of cannabis in public or up to 50g at home or other private places, they said.
Moreover, Germans are to be allowed to cultivate up to three cannabis plants at home, they said.
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