Albania, a European crossroads for marijuana trafficking, legalizes medicinal cannabis despite hard opposition

The Albanian Parliament on Friday legalized cannabis for medical purposes in a country once known as a European crossroads for marijuana trafficking.

The Parliament voted 69-23 to allow limited and controlled growth of cannabis plants, a move harshly contested by the opposition.

It was not clear how the medical cannabis will be regulated. The government believes that allowing limited production of cannabis can boost tax revenue.

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Marijuana growing flourished in Albania in the past as drug traffickers exploited a lack of strong governance in the post-Communist country.

After coming to power in 2013, the left-wing Socialist Party government of Prime Minister Edi Rama set destroying cannabis plants as a main target.

Over the next two years it destroyed millions of cannabis plants with an estimated market value of $8.5 billion, more than two-thirds of the country’s annual gross domestic product at that time.

In 2014, a police officer was fatally shot during a crackdown on a southern village using armored personnel carriers. Police came under automatic weapon and rocket fire from drug growers.

Albania is still a main route for trafficking hard drugs. Police still crack down on isolated cases of cannabis growing, but much less often than a decade ago.