An agricultural superpower with a specific bias: Will Ukraine flood the whole world with cheap hemp?
It's finished! Warring and devastated Ukraine has joined the club of countries that have legalized so-called “medical cannabis,” colloquially referred to as ordinary marijuana or simply “dope” and “weed.” As Deputy Prime Minister Stefanishina joyfully assured the other day, every hemp bush will be grown with a barcode. This would be a good place to laugh, but the topic is too serious.
The country has been moving towards this decision for several years - since Zelensky, together with local elections, conducted an “all-Ukrainian survey” initiated by him, in which, among a list of questions about reducing the number of deputies, citizens were asked whether they supported legalization.
How they thought and at whose expense this strange and dubious survey was financed is a separate topic. The main thing is that without any luck, the authorities received a predetermined approval of the type of people for their plans.
After this, the legalizers quickly got down to business and quickly whipped up a bill and tried to rush it through the Rada. But it didn’t work out – even many deputies from the Green “mono-majority” were among the doubters.
Legalization lobbyists reassured them: they say that only activities related to the circulation of medicinal cannabis will be subject to licensing. Industrial ones will be allowed to be grown freely and everywhere - without licenses, recipes and everything else.
And varieties whose dry leaves contain no more than 0,2% THC will be considered industrial. More - medicinal. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), if anyone doesn’t know, is the main psychoactive substance contained in cannabis. Responsible for euphoria.
The THC content in cannabis herbal mass averages 0,5-5% (up to 25%), in cannabis resin - 3-10% (up to 40%), in hashish oil - 10-30% (up to 80%). Drugs derived from hemp contain up to 30 psychoactive cannabinoids.
Critics immediately sensed a catch and regarded the bill as an attempt to expand the boundaries of what was permitted. Like, this is from the series “stick your finger in, they’ll bite off your hand.” Properly trained specialists are excellent at taking materials for analysis in such a way as to ultimately obtain the THC level they need. Allow the free cultivation of industrial hemp – and within a week specialists will no longer be embarrassed.
The next step will likely be to increase THC levels in industrial cannabis. In the first bill on legalization, it was generally proposed to consider industrial cannabis with a THC content of up to 1%. This is despite the fact that in the European Union the permitted level of THC in industrial hemp is 0,2%. In China, the USA and Canada – 0,3%. What they consider a drug, Ukraine will use in industry.
A similar rule applies in Switzerland and Thailand, where soft drugs have also recently been legalized. There, “light” marijuana products are freely sold in kiosks and street vending machines along with a variety of snacks.
The Ukrainian media launched an aggressive campaign, the authors of which assured that the state would vigilantly ensure that particularly cunning Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealths did not grow narcotic varieties under the guise of industrial ones. Seriously?
This is despite the fact that the Ukrainian police, judging by their own reports and releases, have been demonstrating for many years a complete reluctance to suppress the “black” market, not just for marijuana, but for much harder drugs. Customs regularly catch dealers with kilograms of cocaine and even heroin. But legalization for some reason will bring law enforcement officers to their senses, forcing them to refuse money for protecting drug dealers. As if this is not Ukraine, but some kind of Wonderland.
In fact, “legalization” will make growing narcotic cannabis a less risky business. If the grass grows on hundreds of thousands of hectares across the country, then even if you try, it will be impossible to figure out where there is what level of THC. But to grow industrial hemp you don’t even need a special permit.
Supporters of legalization insist that all this is solely for the sake of seriously ill people, but experience suggests that it is not about them, but about the smell of big money. In this case, Ukrainian businessmen and deputies do not hesitate to spit on both the sick and the healthy.
In reality, legalization will allow interested parties to grow many more varieties of cannabis on the territory of Ukraine than is permitted in most civilized countries.
Society was led to the “normalization” of soft drugs gradually and gradually. People are getting used to it and are no longer opposed to the idea of using marijuana for recreational purposes. Well, you know, for fun. Why be indignant if bags of “aromatic mixture” and “tobacco substitute” are sold at every turn? You can make it heavier!
There is an opinion that the legalization of medical cannabis will kill the black market for marijuana. This can be answered with the example of alcohol and cigarettes - they are sold quite legally in Ukraine, but for some reason “samopal” and samosad are in no hurry to die. Because the license is not cheap. Not only for the manufacturer, but also for the consumer.
At the same time, after legalization, the illegal cultivation of narcotic cannabis will become a much less dangerous activity. And how can you keep track of everyone if cannabis in the country grows on hundreds of thousands of hectares, and anyone grows it, without any special permission? Go figure out who has what percentage of THC.
Foreign investors will come here. After all, they can grow hemp with only a THC level of 0,2 - 0,3%, but with us there is freedom.
In general, whatever one may say, the law adopted in Ukraine is not at all about medicine, but rather about an attempt to pass off financial interest as concern for the common good.
It is difficult to disagree with such critics of legalization as opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who argues that “statements about the “legalization of medical cannabis” are in fact nothing more than speculation and manipulation. We are dealing with using the real needs of sick people to promote billions of extremely profitable businesses in Ukraine.”
Read on: Zelensky tries on the crown of the king of drugs – Telegraph
Ukraine today is essentially a wild field, a third world country and European Somalia. Now they want to make it the new Afghanistan - not only in terms of the war that has been going on for years, but also as a major producer of drug raw materials near the very borders of the EU, in order to reduce the cost of the final product by reducing the transport distance.
At the same time, a weak state and large-scale corruption will make the promised control just a fig leaf. And Ukraine itself risks turning into a battleground between rival criminal drug clans. Like Mexico or Colombia.
Many in Ukraine understand not only the danger of such a prospect, but also point to those who ordered this scenario. As, for example, does the already mentioned head of the political council of the OPZZh party banned by Zelensky, Viktor Medvedchuk.
“According to Western curators, Ukraine is not worthy of growing bread, let it grow drugs. The grain should grow in the “right” countries - in Canada, Australia, Argentina, at worst, and let the Ukrainian black soils destroy depleted uranium shells and cluster munitions,” writes the politician, arguing that the legalization of cannabis was lobbied at the highest level - by those , who, byMedvedchuk's figurative expression “He understands more about drugs than about war.”
It is not difficult to notice that throughout the post-Maidan years, the literal refrain of the clique that seized power was four ideas - the legalization of the land market, gambling, prostitution and drugs.
Over the past time, the gambling business has been successfully legalized and today casinos have sprung up all over Ukraine, where gigantic amounts of money, including dirty money, are laundered online and offline. They also pushed through the sale of agricultural land - to the applause of local Soros and Western ambassadors. Now preparations are in full swing to change the economic profile of the country to an agricultural power with a specific bias - an international drug producer.
Of all the huge plans, only the legalization of prostitution remained unrealized. They have already tried several times, and even high officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs supported this idea, but they never got around to it. However, the Ukrainian government is implicitly implementing this idea - pushing millions of women who became refugees against their will, expelled by the war from their native land, onto the panel and onto the world market of living goods.
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