Georgia Goes Green
M y Facebook news feed has been buzzing these two weeks about a bill that the ruling political party, Georgian Dream (GD), came up with and sent to the Parliament for consideration on Sept.12, 2018. The bill is about allowing to plant and export marijuana for medical purposes. This. Is. Unbelievable.
Since this party has drafted the bill, Georgia might really have it because the majority of the Parliament consists of GD members. However, I don’t think that exporting marijuana from Georgia is a good idea at this moment. A fun fact: as RadioLiberty, a U.S. Congress funded organization, reports, this is the same government that used to detain people for drug-related issues before the usage of marijuana became decriminalized on July 30, 2018. Marijuana got decriminalized because of young people who had multiple protests in the country. Georgian Dream — is your drafted bill a joke?
According to Rustavi2 (R2), an opposition TV station in Georgia that follows watchdog journalism, the Minister of Justice, Tea Tsulukiani, said that every single issue related to marijuana is sensitive to society but in this case, everybody must look at the matter unemotionally and “start evaluating the economical profit out of this reform.” Tsulukiani’s main argument is that the country will create a profitable system out of exporting marijuana. She mentioned Canada and Israel as successful examples of implementing this project.
Forbes, a global news outlet about business, writes that Canada has the largest Cannabis companies in the world. Only three biggest companies alone make a market cap of approximately $10 billion on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This business definitely brings profit BUT — how is Georgia going to take this practice from Canada and exercise it in the country? How is the government going to give out licenses to grow and export Cannabis?
Initially I got very excited when I heard that marijuana was decriminalized in Georgia and that the government started thinking to export it because I don’t think anybody has a right to interfere in someone else’s life. If a person harms herself, it is purely her problem and responsibility.
I am completely against highest hierarchies controlling decisions people make that don’t harm anybody
(what a position from a Resident Assistant who does the opposite of what he thinks, right? Well, c’est la vie).
However, finding an investigation done by R2 journalists on Mar. 31, 2018, completely changed my excitement to wariness. The head of GD, Bidzina Ivanishvili, already bought a land in one of the regions of Georgia and has started building facilities for marijuana plantation.
R2’s information would be considered suspicious if not Ivanishvili’s previous attempts to use the country for his well-being. Eurasianet, an independent news organization, reported on Mar. 22, 2018, that Ivanishvili hired a company to pull off some trees (“tulips, magnolias, lime trees, cypresses, eucalyptuses”) and to transport them to his seaside park.
I would not mind if other people would get a permission to cultivate and export marijuana but I don’t like the idea of having a law that would profit only certain individuals.
T his topic is buzzing cross-media and in the streets of the country right now. R2 (apparently, this is the only functional TV station in the country) broadcasted on Sept. 23, 2018, that the Georgian Orthodox Church plans to have massive protests on this bill.
Something I am concerned about is how these issues are going to affect European integration processes because this is one of Georgia’s top priorities. Professor of European Studies at American University in Bulgaria, Jean Crombois, thinks that if Georgia implements strict regulations on exporting Cannabis, it’s not going to cause problems. “Cannabis is illegal in Europe but some countries like Germany, Austria and Spain use it for medical purposes. It must be observed carefully how Georgia will regulate this. As of now, the government’s discussions are vague,” said Crombois.
Even though I think that decriminalization of marijuana is good, I don’t find it right to start cultivating and exporting it because of all political insinuations that have been popping up after the drafted bill was presented. If the government manages to allow everybody and not only privileged people to get profit equally, let’s go for it. Let’s plant and export. LET’S GO GREEN.
Originally published at advancedwritingjmc.wordpress.com on September 25, 2018.