As deputies in the Czech parliament debate a proposal to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana and the growing of up to three plants (see story last week), activists from Cannabis Is Medicine called on them to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana while they are at it. The group is calling on the government to allow patients to grow up to three pounds of marijuana a year.

The call from Cannabis Is Medicine has been endorsed by a number of Czech personalities, including singer Marta Kubisova, former deputy Tana Fiserova, and film-maker Olga Sommerova. It comes less than a month after the Czech Supreme Court threw out a woman's cultivation conviction because she was using it medicinally.

Patients must be able to grow more than the three plants envisioned under the decriminalization proposal, said Jiri Richter, head of a grouping of nonprofit organizations working on drug prevention and treatment. "Only three cannabis plants, this is ridiculous," he told the Czech news agency CTK.

Richter added that he believed marijuana should be completely legal. But while support for decrim appears strong within the ruling coalition, proposals for legalization are not considered to have much chance.