Cannabis legalization in Macedonia got trapped in the Government’s Working Group, which managed to adjourn only three times. At the same time, Macedonian courts fail to differentiate between cannabis, officially now listed among soft drugs, and heavier drugs, with penalties for cannabis use remaining unchanged, contrary to the spirit of the UN Conventions.
Less than a year ago, the UN following the WHO’s recommendation from January 2019 reclassified cannabis, previously listed on Schedule 4 among the most harmful narcotics humanity has known, namely cocaine and heroin. Now cannabis, recognized for its therapeutic value and classified in Schedule 1, still remains controlled by the mechanisms prescribed by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 and the 1971 Protocol.
The WHO not only reclassified cannabis but also officially recognized CBS as a medicine, confirming what activists have been repeating for years, namely that CBD has broad application in medicine. At present, fifty states allow medicinal use of cannabis, Canada, Uruguay, Luxemburg and fifteen US federal states legalized cannabis for recreational use, while Mexico and Germany are on the way of doing the same!
The authorities in Macedonia, after four years of declaring their support for decriminalization and even legalization of cannabis, made a specific gesture by forming the multidisciplinary Working Group composed from representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Agriculture, several doctors and half a dozen representatives from civil society organizations.
Three meetings were held in the Government’s’ assembly hall, during which the group defined the terms de-penalization, decriminalization and legalization, and divided the working group into subgroups tasked to do research applied in the amendments procedure, whenever it should happen. Finally, in August the elections were announced and everything came to a halt.
Sadly, an entire group of citizens such as patients on cannabis treatment and recreational users are restricted by political processes, crises, elections and re-elections. Considering that in Macedonia elections occur every two years, on average, and political crises are common, such an approach is far from acceptable. Unless the Working Group adjourns again until the end of 2021 to continue its work, I am planning to propose to the Management Board of NGO Bilka to withdraw from the Working Group since we don’t desire to serve simply as decoration in this procedure.
During one of the meetings, a representative of the Ministry of Justice informed us of their proposal to the Working Group for amending Article 215 on narcotics of the Criminal Code by introducing a provision stipulating that personal drug use is not punishable. At the time I reacted personally, as I am now and plan to continue in future, that such an amendment has merely cosmetic purposes, failing to change anything in practice, because in reality we all desire substantial changes rather than cover up.
Just to clarify, the cosmetic amendment is void of meaning since pursuant to the current legal provisions, drug consumption and personal use is not prohibited. However, there is a strong recurring practice and a symbiosis between MOI, the Public Prosecutor and the Court to effectively prosecute users and patients along with actual drug dealers. It is precisely the reason why we insisted and continue, as a Working Group, to offer a proposal on the amount of cannabis, varying from 15 to 30 grams, the state would recognize as permitted for personal use, legal implementation and putting an end to the frivolous behaviour of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Such an attitude is unacceptable and one can only hope that these amendments would be introduced to the Law on Control of Opioid Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, or even better a separate Law on Cannabis we advocate for. However, the authorities are lacking the willingness for such actions, indicating that the intention is to only adopt cosmetic changes.
The situation is quite different in the business part of the story. The Government submitted draft-amendments to the Law on Control of Opioid Drugs and Psychotropic Substances to the Parliament and then withdrew them twice so far. The authorities with the majority of votes will adopt the amendments allowing the cannabis business to launch sooner or later. I fear, however, that the availability of products to the Macedonian citizens would be limited due to the exporting orientation of the legal entities. Hence, we are advocating an obligation to place cannabis products on the domestic market within 18 months from obtaining the license as a requirement.
Macedonian criminal law and its practice remain in status quo. Whether my colleagues are actually aware that the UN’s authorized body reclassified the status of cannabis is questionable. Their practice in 2021 certainly says otherwise. Users and patients are still persecuted after the notorious Guidelines of the Public Prosecutor was issued, and clearly making a distinction between cannabis and other drugs following clearly defined criteria remains an issue.
The criteria should be in the spirit of the UN conventions on drugs, particularly the last Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances from 1988. The Convention proposes that signatories determine sanctions during the adoption of domestic laws related to narcotics and punishments following two criteria – the potential a certain drug user has to develop an addiction and how harmful is the drug to the health.
The implementation of these two criteria would certainly lead to milder sanctioning of cannabis possession than possession of heroin and cocaine, which is not only in the spirit of the Convention ratified by our country, but also morally correct and legally valid! No medical worker, as conservative as they might be, would deny the drastic distinction between heroin and cannabis pursuant to the two mentioned criteria recommended by the UN.
However, experience shows that such a distinction will be difficult to make even in future. The state is primarily focussed on the business related to cannabis, pushing citizens and patients to the background. It must be stressed, however, that even in the business aspect the propositions are far from satisfactory, with political elites lacking momentous initiative, apart from their declarations in support.
Perhaps the best benefit of the Working Group is the subgroup composed of medical workers working on broadening the list of areas in which cannabis would be allowed, showing already promising results. And yet, all efforts are partial unless we fight for the main demands – cultivating an allowed number of plants at one’s home, and the permitted amount of cannabis for personal use per citizen.
Cannabis legalization in Macedonia got trapped in the Government’s Working Group, which managed to adjourn only three times. At the same time, Macedonian courts fail to differentiate between cannabis, officially now listed among soft drugs, and heavier drugs, with penalties for cannabis use remaining unchanged, contrary to the spirit of the UN Conventions.
Author: Janaki Mitrovski
Janaki Mitrovski has been practicing law since 2012. He finished his master studies with a thesis on “Legalization towards Eradication of Drug Trade” from the Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law at the St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. He is a fervent supporter of legalization/decriminalization of all psychoactive substances for personal use. He writes articles and texts for the legal magazines “Pravnik” and “Pravomatika” and is the co-founder of the Cannabis and Green Policies Association BILKA Skopje.