Greek Cypriots launches campaign to legalise home growing of medical cannabis in Cyprus

Greek Cypriots have launched a crusade on social media platform X calling for the legalization of personal cannabis cultivation for use in Cyprus.

The platform in recent weeks has been flooded with adverts from an account which goes by the name of “medical cannabis in Cyprus now”. The adverts all link to a petition on the website change.org.

The petition stated that Cyprus “took the first step towards legalising medical cannabis” in 2017, “allowing its use for patients with serious conditions such as cancer”.

It said the legislation was “expanded” in 2019, giving “hope to patients suffering from chronic conditions such as chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, and other serious diseases such as glaucoma and even potentially other chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.”

However, it said, despite the passage of this legislation, “patients are still having problems accessing cannabis as a treatment option.

“Delays and a failure to implement the law, due to government indifference and bureaucratic obstacles, continue to hinder patients’ access to this treatment,” it said, adding that “patients who suffer daily cannot wait any longer”.

As such, the petition made three demands: the “immediate” access for patients to medical cannabis, the adoption of “models of personal cultivation and use”, and the issuing of licences for personal cultivation.

The petition has now garnered over 600 signatures, with multiple tweets having been posted by the account, most of which tag at least one of Health Minister Michael Damianos, the health ministry’s official account, and Member of the European Parliament Fidias Panayiotou.

But not everyone on Cypriot Twitter has been enamoured with the ubiquity of the posts and adverts.

“Two in three Greek Cypriots smoke joints, you can buy CBD on Ledra Street, but they are spamming us and busting our balls with that ‘medical cannabis in Cyprus’,” one user said.

Cyprus Mail