Czechia's new government announces a tougher drug policy

Five months after Czechia legalised limited possession and home growing, its new government announced plans to turn drug policy in the opposite direction. The announcement was a programme, not a law, but it put parts of the new cannabis settlement under immediate political pressure.

Eighteen measures

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš presented the programme after a cabinet meeting on 8 June 2026. According to the ČTK report carried by Advokátní deník, it comprised 18 measures spread across four proposed laws. Babiš said his government would not pursue a liberal drug policy.

The package extended beyond cannabis. It included removing kratom from legal sale, speeding up the addition of new substances to controlled lists and giving municipalities and police more powers. It also proposed making some conduct criminal again, although the announcement did not itself rewrite the criminal code.

Cannabis in the plan

Two proposals directly concerned products already outside the high-THC cannabis prohibition. The government wanted to reduce the threshold for technical hemp from 1% THC to 0.3%, reversing the 2022 increase. It also proposed banning CBD products.

Those steps would affect a different part of the market from the 2026 personal-use reform. That law allows adults aged 21 or over to grow three plants and possess set amounts for themselves. The June programme did not, in the source available for this article, specify a repeal of those allowances.

A dispute over direction

Jindřich Vobořil, a former national drug coordinator, described the proposals as a return to the period before 1989. His objection was broader than cannabis: he argued that the package preferred repression while neglecting prevention, treatment and measures aimed at children and young people.

That criticism captured the contrast in Czech policy. The country had spent decades drawing distinctions between personal conduct, administrative offences and serious supply crimes. The new programme proposed moving some of those boundaries back toward criminal enforcement.

No legal change yet

An announced legislative programme does not itself alter what a person may possess, grow or obtain. Each proposal still had to become a bill and pass through the legislative process before it could change the national rules described in the Czechia profile.

Nothing moved in the Cannabis Freedom Index. This is a context entry because, when reported, the 18 measures were proposals and none had been adopted.^[1]