Cannabis law and legislation in Serbia

The Serbian Law on Psychoactive Controlled Substances and related regulations consider cannabis as psychoactive controlled substance (narcotic drug). Cannabis is treated in the same manner as other psychoactive controlled substances.

In general, medical treatment which includes the use of psychoactive controlled substances can be conducted exclusively in health care institutions and private practice established in accordance with the law and must be compliant with professionally established positions and medical doctrine, as well as prescribed standards, guidelines, and protocols. However, it should be noted that currently there are no cannabis- based medicines registered in Serbia, so this is rather theoretical.

Recreational use of Cannabis is not allowed in Serbia.

Even keeping small quantities of the narcotic drugs for personal use may be punishable with up to three years’ imprisonment. Unauthorised possession of large quantities of the narcotic drugs is punishable with three to ten years’ imprisonment.

Punishment for unauthorised production, processing, sale, etc. of narcotic drugs is three to twelve years’ imprisonment, and in case of organised group five to fifteen years.

Cultivation of species and varieties of hemp (genus cannabis) that may contain more than 0.3% of substances from the group of tetrahydrocannabinols ( THC) is prohibited in Serbia. The envisaged punishment for growing psychoactive Cannabis is two to eight years’ imprisonment.

The cultivation of hemp (cannabis) is allowed only for the production of fibre, production of seeds for animal nutrition, further propagation, processing, testing of seed quality, as well as its trade, provided that the content of THC does not exceed 0.3%. Entities engaged in the cultivation of hemp must have the authorisation from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.

Additionally, only natural and legal entities which are authorised by the competent body are permitted to grow and place the cannabis on the market, provided that the type of cannabis in question is registered with the competent body.

There is no general prohibition on patenting cannabis-based products if such product fulfils the conditions prescribed by the Patent Law. However, patent cannot be granted for inventions if their commercial exploitation would be contrary to public order or morality.

At the beginning of 2015, the working group formed by the Ministry of Health assessed that cannabis oil should not be legalized because there was insufficient evidence that it was an effective cure and that there were no benefits to the suggested drugs. Safety concerns were raised as well and the proposed changes to legalise cannabis for medicinal use were rejected. Several initiatives for legalisation of medical use of cannabis followed but failed to provide any further proof of medicinal benefits of cannabis. Following the removal of cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, there were some statements issued by the officials indicating that Serbia might comply with these changes at some point, but no amendments of the regulations are expected at present.