UPDATE (Nov. 5th, 2013): As of Tuesday, some grow shops in Prague appear to still be open in defiance of the order. More police raids are expected today. More details posted as the story develops.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated that an estimated 90% of Czech grow shops had voluntarily closed in advance of the crackdown. In fact, the estimated 90% of shops had voluntarily stopped selling seeds, equipment and instructional books together, even while remaining otherwise open for business.

WCL NEWS – An estimated 50 grow shops from around the Czech Republic were forcibly shuttered by a prohibitionist government. Jakub Frydrych, the head of the National Drug Squad of the Czech Police, accused the shops of “toxikomanie,” a Czech legal concept roughly translating to “spreading drug abuse.”

The majority of Czech grow shops had apparently already complied with a court order in advance of the raids conducted November 4th, responding to threats from Frydrych’s office against any shop which sold cannabis seeds, growing books and indoor grow equipment under the same roof, subject to a legal theory which held that any such “one-stop shops” encouraged the spread of problematic cannabis use. Some 50 shops, however, kept the three classes of goods on their shelves until their forced closure Monday. More raids are expected Tuesday.

Grow shops are not the only targets of Frydrych’s ire. According to Lukas Hurysek, editor of the Prague-based Legalizace magazine, at least one popular publication in the former Communist republic faced charges of toxikomanie merely for running a satirical advertisement. “They had papers and filters in one issue and there was one distorted pic inside and under that was written: ‘if you want to see it properly, you should smoke a joint,’” said Hurysek. “It was just a joke, but they tried to start a prosecution and trial with punishment up to 5 years in prison.” The charges were eventually dropped, but the message had still been sent.

The chilling effects of the coordinated raids echo beyond the Fourth Estate. The coordinated raids took place a mere four days before the opening of Prague’s Cannafest, one of the most vibrant cannabis counterculture events on the continent. According to Hurysek, the political intent of the raid is clear. “It will have a huge impact on attendance, atmosphere and all the Czech grow shops that wanted to exhibit there,” he predicts. “The police are effectively killing all the small businesses now.” -West Coast Leaf News Service