The Cannabis Church community in Czech filed
The Cannabis Church community in Czech filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Culture about postponed registration
Prague – the Ministry of Culture (MC) rejected a request for registration submitted by the Cannabis Church community (CC). This legal decision was then challenged with a prosecution brought by the CC. Community Representative Dušan Dvořák claims that the state does not respect the rights for religious freedom warranted by the Church and Religious Communities Law and the Chart of Fundamental Rights.
Last year the MC also rejected registration request submitted by the Lions of the Round Table – the Code of the Czech lands association. The reason for such a decision is usually inconsistency with the registration regulations determined by the law.
More requests were rejected last year, submitted by the Buddhism association and by the Brotherhood Church of the Saint Pia X. Another requested was submitted in mid-2015 by the Path of Jára Guru association. The officials still await requested statements from the association. However, the Office for Czech Press (OCP) supposes that this registration should not be approved either. ( In addition, the leader is prosecuted for raping several girls. )
Representatives of the CC submitted the request on July 14th in 2016, the MC decided on December 22nd. On December 30th, Dvořák pressed charges against “this illicit decision and inaction of the regulatory authority” at the City Court in Prague. The reasons for this action, as evidenced by the OCP, state that it took five months for the decision to be made since the registration had been submitted and the legal procedure took four months itself, which is an argument good enough to “consider this decision illicit as a result of regulatory inaction”.
The registration process was called off in August which was due to inaccessibility of this request, the MC stated. According to the MC the subject of actions and beliefs of the CC members, thus faith in medical properties of Cannabis and spreading these ideas, cannot be classified as religion. Dvořák argues that any candidate religious organization is judged only from Christian’s point of view.