Legalization, regulation and economic and financial aspects of cannabis

The bachelor´s thesis focuses on the legalization of cannabis from an economic and social perspective in the context of the Czech Republic. The structure of the thesis is divided into several parts. The first chapter provides a general overview of cannabis, especially the legal framework in the European Union and the Czech Republic, its use and abuse. The second chapter presents selected foreign approaches to cannabis legalization, specifically in Canada and Germany. The third section presents the basic principles of behavioural economics that can help explain consumer decision-making in cannabis purchasing. The practical part includes a questionnaire survey, using constructed scenarios, legal and illegal environments to monitor public attitudes, expected consumer behaviour and factors influencing cannabis purchasing decisions. The results show that in both scenarios the demand for cannabis is inelastic, i.e. a change in price has a limited impact on the quantity of cannabis demanded. At the standard price, a larger quantity will be purchased in the legal scenario. When buying cannabis, quality is more important than price. The trend shows that people would prefer regulated stores in the case of legalisation.