IT’S been a while since Hungarian cannabis advocates were able to inhale a dose of optimism, but maybe that time is now.
With the new Government sworn-in last weekend we are at the end of a 20-year extended spell under the anti-drug premiership of Victor Orbán.
First elected in July 1998, Orbán wasted no time in declaring his hostility signifying that ‘people who use drugs are making friends with the devil’.
This was the appetiser to a banquet of anti-drug hostility which reached its apogee in 2020 when Hungary stood alone from its 26 fellow EU brethren in opposing the UN’s rescheduling of cannabis.
A further crackdown on drug use ensued in 2025, with an explicit stipulation that ‘the production, use, distribution and promotion of narcotics shall be prohibited in Hungary’.
This constitutional amendment came with enhanced prosecution rules and the imposition of an ‘informer’ system, whereby drug users were compelled to reveal their sources.
A constant opponent of these anti-drug policies has been the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, which was founded in 1994.
Its work includes legal aid for people prosecuted for minor drug possession and consumption, medical cannabis advocacy, support for harm reduction organisations and evidence-based drug policy reforms.
Tamás Kardos is a drug policy expert and a cannabis journalist based in Budapest who has served as the drug policy officer of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) since 2008.
Back in 2016 he organised the first Hungarian Medical Cannabis Conference, and with help from the National Pharmaceutical Institute, the HCLU paved the way for patients to obtain medical cannabis.
A few patients were able to secure imported Sativex and Epidiolex, but within a few months the Government moved to close this loophole.
Speaking to Business of Cannabis Mr Kardos explained: “What we saw is that few patients obtained Sativex for multiple sclerosis, but due to lack of state support, they couldn’t use it for a long time, only one or two months, and that was all.
“And since then, the Hungarian government just stated, on and on, that medical cannabis is kind of a hoax, that cannabis is a dangerous drug, and how it would send the wrong message to young people.”
As a result of last year’s latest crackdown on drug use the HCLU has seen an increasing number of young people turn to it for help.
Kardos elaborated: “As we run a legal aid service, we have many questions about it, that young people get caught with small amounts of cannabis or any type of drugs, and they ask what does it mean, what is that they have to tell to the police.
“And if you check the law, it’s not black and white. So what we say is that you have to say details, what you know, but you don’t have to tell the name, the telephone number, address and stuff like that because it’s the police who have to do the investigation.
“But we are quite sure that many people will tell names and directions and everything, and it’s really dangerous because once the dealer knows who was the one who gave him up, he can exact some revenge.”
Nevertheless the revenge of the young people against Orbán, in the election earlier this year, has led to hopes of a change in drug-policy direction from the new Prime Minister Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza Party.
In answering a question a few years ago Magyar suggested that decisions on drug policy should be led by experts and through working groups, not by him, or party leaders alone.
He suggested examining the approach of other European nations such as Germany and emphasised the need for a more ‘democratic, expert-driven approach’.
Whilst Tisza’s election manifesto was short on detail it does signify the development of a new, modern national drug strategy based on evidence, data, and international best practices, alongside harm reduction measures.
Kardos welcomed developments: “What is good is that the Tisza Party has a programme that contains some drug policy issues.
“It doesn’t contain, for example, medical cannabis and patients, but it states that instead of criminalising consumers, they will prioritise treatment. And they would like to focus the law enforcement actions on distribution and organised crime networks.
“This seems like a change for the good as the laws have become even more strict in the last 15 years-or-so and, we basically couldn’t do any advocacy for changing the laws regarding drug policy.
“But, now, with the new government, they will set up an institute for the civilians, and we can approach them with our ideas. So hopefully there will be a dialogue about it, because basically there wasn’t any dialogue in the last 10 or 15 years.”
Whilst most drug liberalisation policies have been driven by left of centre parties the Tisza party is in many ways as conservative as Orbán’s Fidesz.
Nevertheless, its acknowledgement that its drugs policies need to be driven by data not dogma is a breath of fresh air following decades of Hungarian drug hostility.
Signs that change is occurring emerged at the weekend when the Tisza party spun a new Ministry for Health out of the Interior Ministry with orthopaedic surgeon Zsolt Hegedűs as its head.
Kardos added: “There are several policy issues that the new government thinks that they should give to professionals. It’s a bit technocratic thinking, but I think that in the case of drug policy, that would be the best that could happen right now because it was highly ideological in the last decades, and it has to be changed.
“And we can’t really accept progress in drug policy from a conservative party. But if the professionals could design, for example, the new drug policy, or strategy, that would be a huge step.”
Business of Cannabis has asked the Tisza party for some comments in relation to its approach to cannabis, and its wider drug policy, and is awaiting a response.
The post Is The New Government Set To End Hungary’s Hostility To Drugs? appeared first on Business of Cannabis.
Continue reading...
With the new Government sworn-in last weekend we are at the end of a 20-year extended spell under the anti-drug premiership of Victor Orbán.
First elected in July 1998, Orbán wasted no time in declaring his hostility signifying that ‘people who use drugs are making friends with the devil’.
This was the appetiser to a banquet of anti-drug hostility which reached its apogee in 2020 when Hungary stood alone from its 26 fellow EU brethren in opposing the UN’s rescheduling of cannabis.
A further crackdown on drug use ensued in 2025, with an explicit stipulation that ‘the production, use, distribution and promotion of narcotics shall be prohibited in Hungary’.
This constitutional amendment came with enhanced prosecution rules and the imposition of an ‘informer’ system, whereby drug users were compelled to reveal their sources.
A constant opponent of these anti-drug policies has been the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, which was founded in 1994.
Its work includes legal aid for people prosecuted for minor drug possession and consumption, medical cannabis advocacy, support for harm reduction organisations and evidence-based drug policy reforms.
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
Tamás Kardos is a drug policy expert and a cannabis journalist based in Budapest who has served as the drug policy officer of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) since 2008.
Back in 2016 he organised the first Hungarian Medical Cannabis Conference, and with help from the National Pharmaceutical Institute, the HCLU paved the way for patients to obtain medical cannabis.
A few patients were able to secure imported Sativex and Epidiolex, but within a few months the Government moved to close this loophole.
Speaking to Business of Cannabis Mr Kardos explained: “What we saw is that few patients obtained Sativex for multiple sclerosis, but due to lack of state support, they couldn’t use it for a long time, only one or two months, and that was all.
“And since then, the Hungarian government just stated, on and on, that medical cannabis is kind of a hoax, that cannabis is a dangerous drug, and how it would send the wrong message to young people.”
Dealer Revenge
As a result of last year’s latest crackdown on drug use the HCLU has seen an increasing number of young people turn to it for help.
Kardos elaborated: “As we run a legal aid service, we have many questions about it, that young people get caught with small amounts of cannabis or any type of drugs, and they ask what does it mean, what is that they have to tell to the police.
“And if you check the law, it’s not black and white. So what we say is that you have to say details, what you know, but you don’t have to tell the name, the telephone number, address and stuff like that because it’s the police who have to do the investigation.
“But we are quite sure that many people will tell names and directions and everything, and it’s really dangerous because once the dealer knows who was the one who gave him up, he can exact some revenge.”
Nevertheless the revenge of the young people against Orbán, in the election earlier this year, has led to hopes of a change in drug-policy direction from the new Prime Minister Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza Party.
In answering a question a few years ago Magyar suggested that decisions on drug policy should be led by experts and through working groups, not by him, or party leaders alone.
He suggested examining the approach of other European nations such as Germany and emphasised the need for a more ‘democratic, expert-driven approach’.
Whilst Tisza’s election manifesto was short on detail it does signify the development of a new, modern national drug strategy based on evidence, data, and international best practices, alongside harm reduction measures.
Kardos welcomed developments: “What is good is that the Tisza Party has a programme that contains some drug policy issues.
“It doesn’t contain, for example, medical cannabis and patients, but it states that instead of criminalising consumers, they will prioritise treatment. And they would like to focus the law enforcement actions on distribution and organised crime networks.
“This seems like a change for the good as the laws have become even more strict in the last 15 years-or-so and, we basically couldn’t do any advocacy for changing the laws regarding drug policy.
“But, now, with the new government, they will set up an institute for the civilians, and we can approach them with our ideas. So hopefully there will be a dialogue about it, because basically there wasn’t any dialogue in the last 10 or 15 years.”
Data Not Dogma
Whilst most drug liberalisation policies have been driven by left of centre parties the Tisza party is in many ways as conservative as Orbán’s Fidesz.
Nevertheless, its acknowledgement that its drugs policies need to be driven by data not dogma is a breath of fresh air following decades of Hungarian drug hostility.
Signs that change is occurring emerged at the weekend when the Tisza party spun a new Ministry for Health out of the Interior Ministry with orthopaedic surgeon Zsolt Hegedűs as its head.
Kardos added: “There are several policy issues that the new government thinks that they should give to professionals. It’s a bit technocratic thinking, but I think that in the case of drug policy, that would be the best that could happen right now because it was highly ideological in the last decades, and it has to be changed.
“And we can’t really accept progress in drug policy from a conservative party. But if the professionals could design, for example, the new drug policy, or strategy, that would be a huge step.”
Business of Cannabis has asked the Tisza party for some comments in relation to its approach to cannabis, and its wider drug policy, and is awaiting a response.
The post Is The New Government Set To End Hungary’s Hostility To Drugs? appeared first on Business of Cannabis.
Continue reading...
