A protest held by the White Noise Movement in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, 10 December 2016. Photo courtesy of Guram Muradov and photoessay.ge. All rights reserved.
There are angry crowds in Tbilisi again. On International Human Rights Day (10 December), protesters gathered outside Georgia’s parliament building to call on the government to “decriminalise!”. The event ended in a confrontation with the police, as protesters obstructed the main road. Nobody doubts that protests will continue; Georgia is fighting a war on drugs, and activists of the White Noise Movement are on the front line.
The decriminalisation of marijuana, among other illicit drugs, has been a real issue in Georgian politics since 2011. The country has a particularly repressive no-tolerance policy towards all drug users, which has endured (with a few changes) since the Soviet period.
