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Croatian Public Opinion About Legalisation of Cannabis

The legalisation and liberalization of cannabis have been intensively discussed in the Croatian media and political environment in the last ten years. In 2012, an Ordinance that enabled the sowing of cannabis with a low THC content and exclusively for food purposes was passed. Three years later (2015), another Ordinance allowed placing on the market cannabis products with a high THC content and their consumption. This Ordinance allowed patients suffering from certain diseases to obtain a so-called white prescription for such products, which they could then buy out of pocket. In 2019, the Croatian Act on Combating Drug Abuse liberalised the growing and production of cannabis with a low THC content. It also enabled the adoption of an Ordinance that would allow the cultivation of cannabis with a high THC content for medical purposes. Meanwhile, several Western states have legalised cannabis with a high THC content for medical and recreational purposes, and economic results show that cannabis industry is lucrative. Consequently, the number of states preparing for the full legalisation and liberalization of cannabis is growing. At the same time, cannabis is arousing the growing interest of scientists from various disciplines, which is evident from the increase of scientific papers regarding cannabis and the emergence of specialized scientific journals about cannabis. Growing interest for cannabis is also related to the ambition towards a green transition, i.e., greening the economy, because cannabis is a highly potent plant for bio-economy development. Despite public, media, political and scientific interest, there is no recent scientific research in Croatia on the issue of public opinion regarding legalisation and liberalization of cannabis. This paper uses the method of qualitative content analysis to investigate how the Croatian mass media (press, television, and Internet portals) have addressed the topic of legalisation and liberalization of cannabis in the last ten years, whether the method of processing this topic has changed over time, and if so, in what way. With the in-depth interviews, the paper also explores experiences and opinions of people from the Croatian cannabis industry regarding the perception of the Croatian public about the legalisation and liberalization of cannabis. In addition, a quantitative method of an online survey on a convenient sample of users of the social networks explores their views on the legalisation and liberalisation of cannabis. The initial hypothesis of the paper is that in the last ten years, there has been a noticeable change in public opinion in Croatia about the legalisation and liberalization of cannabis and that today a positive general attitude on this issue prevails.

cannabis, legalisation, Croatia, public opinion, green economy

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