MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (unicameral parliament) has passed a bill, in the second and final reading, to legalize medical cannabis (marijuana), Rada member Yaroslav Zheleznyak said.

"The parliament adopted the bill on medical cannabis in the second reading," Zheleznyak wrote on his Telegram channel. He noted that only the parliamentary factions of the Batkivshchyna ("Fatherland") and European Solidarity parties, led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former President Pyotr Poroshenko, respectively, did not support the bill. Nevertheless, it was passed with 248 Rada members voting in favor of it.

Zheleznyak said that, if enacted, the bill regulates the circulation of cannabis in medical, industrial and scientific activities, while the circulation of "recreational" marijuana will still be considered a crime. According to the legislator, the document envisages enhanced control measures, including the provision that only licensed legal entities will be able to grow marijuana, and they will be obligated to provide round-the-clock monitoring of the plants, with each and every plant labeled. Cannabis-based medicines will be sold by prescription only.

The document now goes to President Vladimir Zelensky for his signature. The law will take effect six months after being officially published, which Zheleznyak expects will happen in the second half of next year.

The bill was initially registered in the Rada in June 2021. The legalization of marijuana was advocated by Zelensky. On July 12, 2021, he asked the Rada to prioritize the legislation, but the next day the parliament failed to give the bill initial backing. On June 28 of this year, Zelensky again urged Rada members to legalize marijuana-based medicines, noting that they should be produced domestically within Ukraine. On July 13, the Rada passed the bill in the first reading. According to Rada member Olga Stefanyshina, who initiated the bill in 2021, at least six million Ukrainians with psychological and mental disorders are in need of cannabis-based drugs.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that the situation with narcotic substances in Ukraine was rapidly deteriorating. As Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted, this was the result of thoughtless steps by the local authorities to liberalize control over drugs and large-scale deliveries of psychotropic drugs under the guise of Western humanitarian aid.