Hemp and elections

And in this election race, the topic of hemp was not heavily touched upon. The parties poured out their support to promise all sorts of social benefits, such as more money (from taxpayers) for pensions, education, healthcare, defense, police, infrastructure, borders, world peace, the ozone hole, physical education, sports, etc.

On the sidelines, however, stand tens of thousands of voters who are interested in who will solve the problem of the growing terror of the Ministry of Internal Affairs against cannabis users. Currently, literally everyone is threatened with serious extortion because of the highly sensitive traffic police testers for the presence of cannabis in saliva, which can turn a person who drove 20 hours after their last cigarette into a criminal. For those voters who wish to align their vote on the 26th with the topic of hemp, we have prepared this comparative analysis of the main political forces.

GERB

Nothing in the program of the largest center-right party portends a change in their hard line against any form of liberalization of ganja. Their deputy chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov himself states that GERB will always form the majority against legalization. Moreover, their election program, as a main point in health care policies, includes the extremely dangerous idea of testing children in school.

Their initial proposal for " mandatory testing " turned out to be unconstitutional and had to be quickly changed to " voluntary testing, with the consent of the parent." Naturally, in this form, GERB's proposal is not "revolutionary." And now every parent can buy a urine test for 5 leva from the pharmacy and have their child tested. Under GERB's proposal, however, this will be paid for by the taxpayer, one specific company (whose name we even know in advance) will win an order for several million... and several government gentlemen and ladies along the chain will enjoy commissions.

As it stands, if GERB has a Ministry of Health, its head will be Dr. Daniela Daritkova. She has been a major player in the Health sector since GERB came to power and, as chairwoman of the Health Committee in the last National Assembly, gave the impression of someone who would meticulously and systematically implement the party's will, even when this would mean a greater risk of tragic incidents with children, such as this one. Moreover, it is an open secret that GERB does not change its policies on a given topic until Boyko Borisov and/or Delyan Peevski realize their potential profit from it. Currently, the lack of an idea of how either of them would gain politically and financially from a legal cannabis business prevents this business from happening.

BSP

From the socialists we encounter systematic silence on the topic. Political logic suggests that the BSP would like to keep talking, only and exclusively, concerning their solid and constantly decreasing (for demographic reasons) electorate. Elderly people and Russophiles are the voters who are least interested in the topic of "hemp". If we see internal changes in the centenarian towards the traditional left-liberal values of personal freedom and inviolability of the body, the BSP could just secure itself some 100,000 youth votes. Not yet.

ABC – Movement 21

Tatyana Doncheva has known for some time what the BSP refuses to understand – the need for young voices. In such a coalition, however, the cause of hemp freedom cannot be accepted. Assoc. Prof. Georgi Kyuchukov was the strong man of the ABV in the Health Committee in the last National Assembly.

Several of his statements during meetings regarding medical marijuana showed a clear lack of understanding of the topic and a stubbornness in not questioning his beliefs - using his formal medical titles because he simply lacked other arguments. If the two parties continue their separate lives, we expect Movement 21 to retain its chance of mobilizing in favor of some legalization, but it will certainly not be an easy path.

DPS

The situation in the DPS resembles that of GERB. When Peevski sees an opportunity to profit from a business with legal cannabis, whether it is for smoking, medicine or bricks for houses, some interesting messages will appear along the lines of " Let's give farmers the opportunity to profit from their land... ", " We are the party of freedoms...", etc.

This would also be a clear sign of a change in Russia's strictly conservative position on the subject. We asked the MRF press center for a comment, but by the time this article was written, we had not received one. The only (fairly weak) interest related to industrial hemp was expressed by the MP from the last National Assembly, Ferihan Ahmedova, after representatives of the Bulgarian Libertarian Society spoke in the Agriculture Committee.

United "Patriots"

This is the most problematic and harmful political entity for drug policy in Bulgaria. Each of the parties individually is categorically against "Freedom for Hemp" in any form. There are several reasons - all of them extremely repulsive.

The most important one is mafia-corporate. There is a person from the NFSB party, who was previously in the VMRO, before that in the RZS and in general every Bulgarian party with a dubious history. This person is called Boris Yachev and is the leader of the list of "patriots" in the city of Plovdiv. Mr. Yachev's main job in the National Assembly is to effectively block any possibility of reform in the field of drug policy. In this way, certain economic groups from the Petrich and Blagoevgrad regions directly benefit.

In addition, Mr. Yachev's protégé and a cadre of the "Patriots" is the secretary of the National Council on Narcotics, Svetlana Yordanova, against whom the Bulgarian Libertarian Society filed a complaint for conflict of interest last year. One thing is clear - as long as the "Patriots" participate in power, legalization will not happen.

"Will"

In a conversation that EKIP authors had with Mr. Mareshki during his presidential campaign, he said that he would support the use of cannabis in medicine. Alas, the expected role of "Volya" in this parliament is to be a silent coalition partner of GERB in the shadows. In a way, Mareshki's party will replace that of Barekov and Volen Siderov as supposed supporters of the majority. Let's hope our expectations do not come true.

Reformist Bloc–2 § Glas Naroden

Гласовитите реформатори са объркани по темата. От една страна имаме изказвания на Антони Тренчев, че партията му подкрепя медицинска марихуана и декриминализиране на личната употреба, от друга - предизборен лидер и лице на тази коалиция….е Петър Москов. Същият Москов, който миналата година прие най-безпринципната редакция на Закона за наркотичните вещества и съзнателно и ефективно спря всякакви опити да лекуваме болни или правим индустрия с коноп. Още повече като министър  назначи Светлана Йорданова в НСНВ в нарушение на закона и в конфликт на интереси само и само, за да угоди на коалиционните си приятелчета от Патриотичен фронт и корпоративните им интереси. Личността на Петър Москов и нормална политика по отношение на тревата, са две напълно несъвместими величини. Реформаторският блок не може да има адекватна позиция за тревата и да развява Москов като силен политик в здравеопазването. Невъзможна комбинация.
Другата, колоритна част от тази коалиция, е Глас Народен. Катарзисът при тях е пълен. Точно преди една година Глас Народен официално подкрепи Марш „Свобода за конопа“, който се състоя по времето на и като директен протест срещу…Петър Москов и политиката му. Силното лице на „лигалайза“ в Глас Народен – Петър (Ghettoman) издаде предизборна рап песен със съпартиеца си Венци Мицов, в която „младежките субкултурни лидери на мнение“ не изпяха нито една рима за ганджата. Това иде да покаже, че не можем да очакваме активност и от тази коалиция по отношение на тревата. Още повече – изключително важно е, за да се случи нещо положително в тази сфера, д-р Пепи Москов да не бъде министър на здравеопазването в следващия (или който и да е било друг) кабинет.

Yes, Bulgaria - The Greens - DEOS

At the beginning of its election campaign (a little earlier than the other parties), Yes, Bulgaria made a strategic decision not to deal with topics such as the status of weed and gay rights. The problem with this decision is that it caused outrage among people who had sympathy for the Protest Network and Hristo Ivanov as a potential advocate for causes concerning the younger generation. As a minister, Hristo Ivanov was much bolder in his statements than as a party leader. During the campaign, he stated several times that he had no intention of supporting legalization “ …until society is ready.”, which, translated from populist language to normal, means – never. To some extent, their position is explained by the strong Christian-evangelical wing in the party and the lack of electoral experience among a large part of the members of DaBg.

The Greens are the positive hero in this coalition. They are the only party that has three clearly pro-legalization figures on the lists – attorney Kalin Angelov (24 MIR, preference 15 in the ballot), Ivaylo Popov (25 MIR, preference 10 in the ballot) and Bobi Sandov (23 MIR, preference 7 in the ballot). The Greens have always participated in actions and campaigns regarding the hemp plant and this policy is among their long-term priorities. Alas, once again the coalition agreements with Yes, Bulgaria do not allow them to campaign on the topic, but one thing is certain - if any of these three candidates manages to enter the National Assembly, legalization will have its man inside.

DEOS has been pro-legalization since its inception and has stated it clearly. They, like the Greens and Glas Naroden, supported the "Freedom for Hemp" March in 2016. Although their main candidate Emil Georgiev decided to campaign with other topics and causes, we can expect a friend of legalization in his person. Alas, DEOS's influence in this coalition is too modest to be able to influence in a positive direction and change the general position of the union.

New Republic

In an interview with Radan Kanev for EKIP TV, he tries to express both a popular and conservative idea about cannabis policy, but in the end he ends up with nonsense - legalization is not a good move, because after its introduction and production, it will go to the mafia... as if it is not there now. The coalition as a whole cannot be expected to be active on this topic, because their strategic approach is towards the promotion of Christian-conservative values and policies, such as, for example, a mandatory religion class in school.

Summary

Alas, we cannot expect any serious changes in the status quo's attitude towards the hemp plant during these elections. The most important thing for legalization in the next government is that the United Patriots do not participate in power. Unfortunately, at this point, this seems unlikely.

As long as Borko Yachev and the NFSB are in the National Assembly and in power, legalization in Bulgaria will be sabotaged through the administrative machinery of the parliament, instigated by the United Patriots MPs and with the media support of hysterical aunts like Temenuzhka Lyubenova and her wards' anti-drug minions.
If you still want to express a pro-ganja vote, you can do so with one of the preferences of the three Green candidates. This will help the cause within the Greens, where they will read the preference as a clear sign that they need to communicate these messages more actively, but it is unlikely to affect the overall vision of their party coalition with Yes, Bulgaria.

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