Is it possible to grow hemp at home? Russian law 2022: latest news, changes, tips

As always, we will try to answer the question “Is it possible to grow hemp at home, Russian law 2022.” You can also consult with lawyers for free online directly on the website without leaving your home.

The bill proposes to cancel this ban, determine the procedure for cultivating narcotic plants for the production of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances used for medical purposes and (or) veterinary medicine, and also extend the provisions of the Federal Law regarding the establishment of a state monopoly and requirements for the conditions for the cultivation of narcotic plants for use in for scientific, educational purposes and expert activities, for the cultivation of narcotic plants for the production of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances used for medical purposes and (or) veterinary medicine.

Explanatory note to the “law on cannabis”

6. Varieties of narcotic plants permitted for cultivation for the production of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances used for medical purposes and (or) veterinary medicine, for cultivation for industrial purposes not related to the production or manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as requirements for varieties and the conditions for cultivating these plants are determined by the Government of the Russian Federation.”;

Official text

4. Subject to state control in accordance with international treaties of the Russian Federation, the cultivation of such a narcotic plant as opium poppy for industrial purposes not related to the production or manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances is carried out in accordance with this Federal Law by state unitary enterprises producing and processing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, the property of which is in federal ownership, subject to a license provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation on licensing of certain types of activities.

What will it be like to use weed in Russia in 2022?

Consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances without a doctor’s prescription 1. Consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances without a doctor’s prescription, except for the cases provided for in Part 3 of Article 20.20, Article 20.22 of this Code - (as amended.

Corpus delicti

But if you have not exceeded the established sizes, then only administrative liability awaits you for the illegal acquisition of parts of plants containing narcotic substances. Sanctions are established by Art. 6.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation in the form of a fine of 4 to 5 thousand rubles. or arrest for up to 15 days.

Situation 3 . A resident of Vladivostok appeared in court for illegally cultivating plants containing narcotic substances on an especially large scale. As part of Operation Poppy, the police found a plot in one of the plantings where an illegal citizen was growing 1,200 hemp bushes, which he carefully tied up, fertilized and watered. The man admitted his actions and repented of his actions. A case was initiated against him under Art. 231 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The court found the suspect guilty and sentenced him to imprisonment for a period of 4 years and 6 months in a special regime colony.

So, if a person grew hemp on a small scale, then he faces administrative liability in accordance with Art. 10.5.1. Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation: a fine of 1.5-4 thousand rubles or restriction of freedom for a period of 15 days.

Why does Russian law provide for such severe penalties for growing hemp?

For growing hemp (cannabis), from which marijuana is made, law-abiding citizens may be subject to administrative or criminal liability. It all depends on the amount of cultivated “grass” .

Growing hemp and your safety. How not to get burned and maintain freedom

Actually, I should start my blog with this article. I enjoy writing about cannabis and marijuana, but I have to live with the possibility that some percentage of my readers will go to jail. This is very sad, but inevitable. I can only try to give a couple of tips so that the percentage of those who turn to grass is as small as possible.

When talking about the safety of growing hemp, an important point that is often overlooked is the risk groups. Only very naive people believe that everything secret becomes clear and everyone who breaks the law sooner or later faces prison. Bullshit! Especially when it comes to “drugs.” The desire to change one's consciousness is a universal human need, which is why psychoactive substances (illegal) are too common for the police to catch all the producers and sellers, not to mention the users. All she is capable of is to carry out an “exemplary flogging”, or rather, demonstrably ruin the lives of a few in order to intimidate millions.

Now let’s figure out who those few are - in fact, they’re not such a few, it’s not for nothing that the article is called “people’s” and half the country sits on it - in short, who are the people who come across in the first place. At the same time, let's not talk about professionals. In news stories about the zombie industry, they like to show raids on “clandestine drug laboratories.” Apparently, the nerves of ordinary people are tickled by the fact that “deadly drugs” are not brought from somewhere abroad, but are produced right there, literally behind their walls. In such stories, the emphasis is on production, and the fact that production was carried out for the purpose of marketing is mentioned, but not emphasized. But if there were no sales, the “clandestine drug laboratory” with a 95% probability would have operated for years, providing its owner with the modest joy of smoking his own buds.

So, we are talking about those who grow not for sale, but exclusively for themselves. Which of these people is at risk?

Remember the scene from the movie Hangover where the cops give the kids advice on how to avoid arrest? “Don’t be black or Hispanic!” And the kids—there are both of them among them—nod joyfully. Valuable advice indeed.

Taking into account Russian specifics, the advice needs to be modified. “Don’t be young, cheerful and sociable.” If you are an elderly, sullen, unsociable person, your chances of getting into weed are close to zero, even if you have been growing for twenty years and smoking two grams a day. If you are constantly visited by cheerful groups, if your neighbors constantly hear music, conversations and loud laughter from behind the wall, then your chances of going to completely different lands, with completely different neighbors, increase greatly.

Or let's look at the same thing from a different angle. Ask yourself a question: If tomorrow (don’t stress! This is all just an example! Pah-pah!), so, if tomorrow you are arrested for weed, how will your neighbor react to this?

A.	"Come on?! Seriously?! That’s who I would never have thought of!”
B.	“Yeah... You know, for some reason I’m not surprised”
IN.	"It is high time! Thank God there was a brave person who reported him. I was going to do it myself.”

If your option is “B”, then you are at risk. If “B”, then... Stop! Isn't there a knock on your door? Look through the peephole and under no circumstances open it if you don’t know the person! Did your neighbor come for an onion? OK, let's continue then.

Your task is to get into group “A”. And there is only one way to do this - to be a serious and decent person. If you are young, then a serious and decent young man. Difficult? Who said it would be easy! But you have to try. The point here is this: legalization will happen only when the majority of marijuana smokers are serious and decent people who study, work, raise children, and relax with the help of... However, who cares how they relax. DO NOT INVOLVE INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE!

Well, enough of the lyrics! Now to the point!

1	Don't tell anyone what you're doing. No one at all. It is better that no one knows about what you use. If they already know, let them think that you are taking money from a dealer. To the question “is there anything”, answer every other time that not yet, but maybe you’ll be able to figure something out by the end of the month, however, HZ. Read also: Article 207. Knowingly false report of an act of terrorism It’s not so dangerous to spill the beans if your social circle is entirely people from group “a.” They are not in the know, they don’t communicate with the cops, and they don’t even find themselves in such a situation as to chat about you by the way. But there is still a risk. Although not that big, it is there. But if you have half a district of friends, and everyone smokes, and someone is banning, and you decide to start a grove, then secrecy should be 100%! Without fail! With no exceptions! No options! Not a word to anyone! If only one person knows, half the district knows. And what next is clear.
2	When starting a grove, consider all the situations when you will be forced to let strangers into your house. The most common situation is checking gas and water meters. If the electricity meter is also in the house, then it is also there. Accordingly, plants should not be in the same room as the counters, or in the toilet, where visitors can look when needed. The second point is the smell, but more on this in a separate paragraph. Don't rule out visits from the police. They stole the neighbor's bike from the entrance - they will interview all the residents. They appointed a new district police officer - he will come to “get acquainted”. Lately, there have been cases when idiots in uniform walk around apartments and ask questions about trustworthiness: have they heard any extremist (read: oppositional) statements. No matter who comes into your house, whether it’s a cop, a utility worker or just an acquaintance, he shouldn’t burn you down.
3	Don't literally set your planter on fire. Electricity and water are two ingredients of unhappiness. Countless apartments and houses turned into smoking ruins, and it all started with a spark in a box of plants. Take electrical wiring as seriously as possible, do everything carefully, without hanging tangles of wires, and provide adequate insulation. Do not skimp on electrical equipment, do not use faulty electrical appliances. There should be no electricity where you work with water. Remember - THIS IS A REAL RISK! The risk is not only of ruin and prison, but also of injury and death, not only for you, but also for your loved ones and simply for those around you. Be responsible. When in 2014 Canada decided to prohibit patients from growing medical marijuana at home, one of the arguments was precisely the fire hazard.
4	Don't let light leak from your box/closet/tent. The light from sodium lamps is so intense that it cannot be confused with ordinary room light. So, when an orange sheaf shoots from your balcony, the person in the subject will immediately understand everything, and the rest will be puzzled. There are two types of leaks: permanent (by the way, there shouldn’t be any, since the box must provide 100% light insulation, otherwise the cannabis will bloom poorly) and one-time - this is when you open the box doors to look/water, and so on. Cover your windows with dark curtains when you are about to work on your plantar. Blinds and similar tricks will help you. Although tightly closed windows also inspire suspicion. Use your head and think about what will attract less attention.
5	In addition to light, noise can also give you away. This refers to the noise of the fans. Use rubber pads to dampen vibration.
6	Solve the odor problem. Ideally, the smell should be so weak that even your guests will not notice it. And it doesn’t matter at all if it is felt in the entrance or near the house. The ideal option is a hood directly from the box to the street. If the variety is smelly, even then you may need a carbon filter or an air ionizer. If the smell is not strong, it can be masked using air fresheners. A lack of stink is not necessarily a sign of poor quality weed. You'll be surprised how many good varieties there are that have virtually no odor when grown.
7	Don't keep anything related to grove in sight. Fertilizers, lamps, appliances, bags of soil - all this should be hidden from prying eyes, then you won’t have to lie to good people who are not in the know, and a knowledgeable people won’t burn you down. When you bring all this home from stores, try to do everything so that your neighbors do not have any questions. Use large opaque bags or boxes, choose a time (twilight, darkness, but not after midnight) when it is difficult to see details, or when there is little chance of meeting someone in the elevator or on the stairs. Prepare an explanation in advance for the overly curious and immodest (“What’s in the box? Yes, some junk from the basement. I’ll sort out what to throw away, what to keep”). Throw away everything that was associated with growing, and especially the foliage and branches of cannabis, preferably also without the pale leaves. A garbage disposal is not an option, and neither is a personal container at your cottage. Don’t be too lazy to walk or drive to some trash can that you usually don’t use, since it is located far from home.
8	Unexpectedly and sharply increased electricity consumption is quite bad Especially when the people who control such things are close to you (women from the HOA who have an office in the basement of your own house). These may come and see what's going on. What can I recommend here? Think about it, do you, personally, need 800g of buds? If not, then maybe you shouldn’t buy a 1000W lamp, but take something more modest? Watt at 75-250? If, after all, 1000W, then this is a risk, and this is an expense for which it is difficult to give a legitimate explanation. Try to reduce overall energy consumption by starting to strictly save electricity on everything else - do not use the TV and computer, microwave and electric oven, washing machine and dishwasher, sit in the dark or in the light of a weak energy-saving light bulb. Given such a cave existence, even a 1000-watt light bulb will produce a rather extravagant, but quite understandable expense - they say, there are a lot of people in the apartment, but you can’t teach anyone to save!
9	If you decide to grow cannabis, you probably need to give up remote security. You should not allow undercover citizens to enter your home in your absence. It’s better for thieves to take everything away than for people in camouflage to arrive, detain the thieves, and at the same time discover your small (or not small) grow-op.

Safety when growing hemp outdoors deserves a separate article, which I will write later, so I will limit myself here to a couple of the most general considerations.

If you decide to grow hemp in a guerrilla way, that is, on public lands, you are unlikely to find some completely wild corner where no one has set foot. I don’t know about your region, but here everything is so well-trodden (and spoiled) that when planting hemp, you can be sure that during the season at least one person will pass by.

Choose a place where no one needs to go for any reason. Where there is no game and no fish caught, and in principle neither berries nor mushrooms grow. Obviously, this is a wasteland overgrown with nettles somewhere on the outskirts, with a pile of bricks left over from either a garage or a cowshed, an elderberry bush and a piece of rotten fence. Well, in general, you understand the style.

True, if this place is close to the city, boys can climb here. 15-20 years ago they would definitely have climbed, but now - glory to Jah! — they are more busy with electronic devices and less scurrying around vacant lots.

In short, the main thing is that the nettles around are thicker and you will have a harvest.

Having cleared a plot of land among the nettles, make it as irregularly shaped as possible, so that it is more difficult to burn it down from helicopters. A blot is better than a rectangle or even an oval.

Walk to the plot without trampling paths. Try to come infrequently and each time come from the other side and do not return in a trail. Take long steps, lifting your legs high so as not to crush the vegetation too much. If necessary, carefully push the thickets apart with your hands and squeeze through. Don't be like a road roller. Don't go straight - it will be like a corridor leading straight to your personal paradise. Walk in zigzags, then the path in the weeds will only be traced until the first turn.

If you keep any tools, water bottles, or anything else in your plot, hide them well and don't leave fingerprints on them.

If possible, when going on a partisan mission, take with you something that will convincingly explain your presence on the plot - a fishing rod and fishing tackle or a gun. Mol went hunting/fishing and accidentally came across hemp. As it was, I wasn’t going to touch it, I just wanted to take a closer look.

Visit the plot at night or early in the morning. If you come in a car, do not leave it on the side of the highway, turn onto a remote dirt road. You can harvest the crop at night and hide it somewhere along the road, in a place that you can then easily drive up to and load it safely. It’s better not to take your staff to the city at night, when, and not having any fawn with you, you’ll decide to lie about why you were on the road at such a time. It’s better in the morning, when besides you there are still a hundred thousand million law-abiding citizens on the roads who are going about their morning socially useful business.

Can they be planted for buying or selling hemp seeds?

Sanctions will follow for the sale or purchase of prohibited hemp seeds that are found to have a high THC content (significant, large or extra large). However, the buyer and seller will be judged under different standards.

What is the deadline for purchasing hemp seeds?

in a correctional institution, pre-trial detention center, administrative building, school, institute, at sports facilities, railway or subway, air, sea or water, public transport, in leisure or entertainment premises;
through the media, the Internet or other information networks.

These include: Indian, South Manchurian, South Chuya, South Arkhonsky and South Krasnodar varieties of hemp. Punishments for legal entities and individuals who have committed violations of the law in the field of growing drug-containing plants are quite severe.

Growing marijuana - article

Cultivating marijuana is illegal except for medical or scientific purposes. Storage, distribution and sale are also punishable by administrative liability.

Penalties for growing marijuana

If law enforcement officers have recorded the fact of cultivating marijuana on a large or especially large scale, then the perpetrator faces criminal liability; if in an insignificant amount, then the suspect faces administrative liability.

No. 598 “On improving state policy in the field of healthcare” in terms of bringing the volume of production of domestic medicines according to the nomenclature of the list of vital and essential medicines (hereinafter – VED) to 90% by 2022.

After all, marijuana is a drug that is obtained from Indian hemp. If law enforcement officers have recorded the fact of cultivating marijuana on a large or especially large scale, then the perpetrator faces criminal liability; if in an insignificant amount, then the suspect faces administrative liability.

The State Duma adopted a law on growing marijuana for medical purposes - latest news

For basic soil cultivation for hemp, scientists recommend two options. If the predecessor was winter or spring grain crops, then after disc hulling when weeds grow, deep tillage of the soil without turning the layer is possible using heavy cultivators, chisel plows to a depth of 30 cm and flat cutters. If the predecessors were tall crops (corn, etc.) or sugar beets, then in this case, after disc hulling, deep plowing to a depth of 30 cm with a plow with skimmers is preferable.

In European countries, hemp seeds are sold in beautifully packaged boxes labeled “Souvenir”. Russian entrepreneurs are interested in whether it is possible to sell such souvenir products in Russia. However, do not delude yourself. Usually, even if there is an indication that these seeds are a souvenir, the instructions write the characteristics of the variety and the yield of the plant, which implies the possibility of growing it. Therefore, seed trading is precisely the case when the risk is unjustified.

A high-profile bill on the legalization of the cultivation of plants containing narcotic substances for medical purposes was adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation on June 20, 2022 in the third reading. This law lifts the current ban on growing marijuana (cannabis) and poppy, but not for everyone. Only state enterprises (federal state unitary enterprises) that have the appropriate license for this type of activity will be able to cultivate plants. There are only 2 such enterprises in Russia so far. Thus, the law on growing marijuana in Russia in 2022 establishes a state monopoly on this type of activity.

How many marijuana plants can you grow to avoid criminal penalties? The answer to this is clear - less than 20 bushes, since this size is not considered large. Moreover, this rule was introduced recently; previously, any illegal cultivation of hemp led to criminal liability. With the adoption of Federal Law No. 87-FZ of May 19, 2010, changes were made to various legislative acts in the field of cultivation and cultivation of plants containing drugs. Growing them was decriminalized, but cultivation was not. Cultivating plants means caring for them in order to obtain maximum benefit. Cultivation does not necessarily imply benefits.

The law does not provide for liability for the sale and purchase of hemp seeds. This is explained by the fact that they do not contain the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol, contained in the leaves and inflorescences. Most of it is concentrated in a sticky resin secreted from the flowers of the female plant.

Making the argument that legalization will reduce police brutality is absurd and undermines the position of marijuana advocates. Arbitrariness is a thing in itself, and no one will prove that there will be less drug trafficking if marijuana suddenly becomes legal. A policeman who has lost his honor will simply “switch” to heroin or spice; marijuana is completely “sideways” here.

You can find a lot of material on the Internet that talks about a conspiracy against cannabis. Believing them or not is a personal matter for everyone, but, in any case, there are reasons to think about it. Many argue that oil tycoons are afraid of competition with hemp. “Black gold” is used to make not only fuel, but also all plastic, and it can be replaced with hemp biocomposites, which have many advantages. The Canadian company Hempearth (Canada is the world's second largest producer of hemp) has even undertaken to build an entire aircraft, three-quarters consisting of such materials and running on hemp biofuel. Large producers of paper made from wood also have reasons to be afraid of this plant. And to protect their capital, some are ready to do anything.

The adoption of amendments to the law is associated with the need to implement V.V. Putin’s Decree No. 598 of 05/07/2012. The President, in particular, pointed out the need to take measures that would allow increasing the amount of domestic medicines necessary for the life support of Russians to 90%.
The explanatory note also states that currently 13 drugs containing narcotic substances are produced in Russia, nine of which are considered vital. Some of these drugs are imported, and the raw materials are 100% produced by foreign companies. This market is controlled by 10 states, nine of which are under the jurisdiction of states that support the sanctions policy.
The deputies believe that this situation requires fundamental changes, and this need arises in connection with the need to ensure the national security of the country, which has become dependent on Western “partners.”
Legislators have proposed a solution that will allow organizing a full cycle of production of medications based on cannabis, sleeping pills poppy and other narcotic crops.
According to the new rules, oilseed or opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L), which contains a large number of alkaloids, will be grown. According to the new law, Russian enterprises will be able not only to grow this valuable crop, but also to produce vital medications from poppy straw.

Thanks to the amendments, criminal liability for the cultivation of hemp and other plants containing narcotic substances in small quantities was abolished. As for hemp, small size is defined as 20 bushes. Thus, if a person has grown less than 20 bushes of this plant, he will only be brought to administrative responsibility.