A bill to implement a legal cannabis industry has been introduced in Iceland by Pawel Bartoszek, a member of the nation’s Reform Party, the Iceland Review reports. The measure, which would provide a legal taxed and regulated regime, is based on the handbook How to Regulate Cannabis: A Practical Guide. The guide is published by Transform, an independent think tank that campaigns for drug reforms.
Under the measure, Icelanders 20-and-older would be able to purchase cannabis products and social-use would be permitted in so-called “cannabis restaurants”; alcohol would not be served at these establishments. Products would be sold in plain gray packaging that includes product information and warnings, and a total ban on cannabis advertising would be included.
“I hope that the bill will be an icebreaker that spurs the debate and that it will ultimately lead to us ceasing the punishment of people for consuming this specific substance,” Bartoszek said in the report, adding that over 1,000 individuals are prosecuted for cannabis crimes in the nation each year.
The measure would include a fee similar to that paid by alcohol importers or manufacturers. According to the announcement on Bartoszek’s website, the fee would be 2,000 kroner “per gram of active THC,” so products with 15 percent THC would carry a 300 kroner fee per gram — or about $48 USD per gram.
The proposal was introduced on Sept. 20.
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