Petition N°524, concerning the legalisation of the possession and consumption of cannabis in Luxembourg, is today a quarter of the way to the 4,500 signatures needed for the case to be discussed in Parliament.
Chronicle.lu first reported on the petition when it was opened to signatures on Thursday 30 July 2015. After having received 44 signature votes on the Chamber of Deputies website in its first 24 hours, the petition has now been signed by 1,125 people in total.
The petition's instigator, a Mr. Patrick Pereira, wrote in his submission statement that cannabis is wrongly perceived to be a hard drug, claiming that "a glass of vodka is much worse for your health than a cannabis joint."
A survey carried out by the Addiction Prevention Centre (CePT) in the beginning of 2015 found that whilst 32% of festival-goers asked had consumed cannabis, 89.9% of respondents had consumed alcohol, of which more than half (49.6%) had done so in the last two weeks.
With the online petition system established in 2013, citizens of the Grand Duchy who meet the criteria of being over the age of 15 and in possession of a Luxembourgish social security number are able to sign the petition until the designated closing date. If the petition reaches 4,500 signatures or more, it will then become a subject of organised debate at the Chamber of Deputies, which will be attended by a Government minister, six endorsers of the petition and members of the press.
The petition will be available for signatures until 10 September 2015.
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