It’s hard to avoid every street with glowing cannabis leaf signs, but you might want to think twice about what you're buying.
Tucked along the Romanesque streets of Prague are green-painted ‘cannabis’ stores, with glowing leaf signs, seemingly a beacon for marijuana users. Yet these storefronts, decked out in marijuana THC promotions, aren’t what they appear to be.
Rampant amounts of cannabinoids are sold in Prague’s stores. These cannabinoids are cannabis sativa L (Hemp), cannabidiol (CBD), hexahydrocannibinol (HCC). These substances are associated with and act similarly to Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC. However, these substances do not influence people the same way that legalized marijuana does due to their strength and content.
In recent years, these shops have dominated the historic centers of Prague, many items are labeled as high-quality THC products while Czech law prohibits it. “It’s like the wild, wild west, or the wild, wild east,” says Tomas Vymazal, founder of the Cannabis Safe Association.
When Czechia decriminalized cannabis for personal possession in 2010, it offered no regulation for a formal, legal market. Other legislation allowed industrial cannabis plants to only contain up to 1% of THC. Store owners have taken this wake of legislation as a form of entrepreneurial possibility.
“I didn't expect it to become the platform upon which they would spray HHC or other cannabinoids and sell it as substitute real weed or however you want to call it,” said Vymazal.
Dario Sabaghi, a freelance journalist who covers the cannabis beat, noted that most cannabinoids are shipped to places like Prague from the U.S., Canada, Macedonia, Estonia, Denmark, Spain, and Italy. “Everyone is reselling everything,” said Sabaghi.
These cannabinoid products are part of an unregulated, open market, which has prompted the European Union to act. In April 2023, the European Commission released a statement that CBD and other cannabinoids are novel foods that can’t be placed on the open market.
Yet, stores are still selling, and customers are buying.
On a late March afternoon, Samuel, 22, from London walked out of Hempo cannabis shop in central Prague. The UK native had been on a trip abroad for several months and was excited to see the shop. Kutten wasn’t aware of the cannabis regulation in Prague, but when browsing the store, he said, “It does seem a little too good to be true, but I thought it was worth it.” Whether visitors are coming from a country that has legalized cannabis or it is still illegal, seeing such a surplus of marijuana-labeled products becomes enticing.
Vymazal said, “It is not safe. Mostly because this stuff is being sold to children.” While these cannabinoid products are being falsely advertised to adults, they are additionally finding their way into the hands of kids. In Czechia, over a dozen children in 2024 have been admitted into hospitals for eating sweet jellies containing the cannabinoid HCC.
In an effort to provide truth in advertising, for potential buyers at the shops, legislation has been proposed where sellers would have to state, among other things, the effects, possible risks, recommended dosage, and advertising would not be allowed for the products. Until then, buyers beware.
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