 |
Cannabis in Serbia is illegal. Possession is punishable by a fine or by imprisonment of up to 3 years. Sale and transport are punishable by imprisonment from 3 to 12 years. Cultivation is punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years. Penalties are higher for organized crime. [1]
In the 1700s, Italian farmers and hempseed strains were brought to Serbia, making hemp an important crop there until the 1900s. [2] Hempseed was a traditional aphrodisiac, and wearing hemp fiber was said to enhance a man's sexual strength. [3]
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ratified the International Opium Convention on 4 September 1929. [4] The first law to sanction drug abuse was the Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes passed on 27 January 1929 and which entered into force on 1 January 1930, which sets a prison sentence of up to 6 months for "serving" narcotic drugs in the section "Crimes against Public Health". [5]
The first Ganja March in Belgrade was held on 7 May 2005 and went smoothly with around 50 participants. [6] [7]
The second Ganja March in Belgrade, organized by Damjan Pavlica, was scheduled to be held on 5 May 2007. [8] However, on 3 May 2007 the Ministry of the Interior received a threatening email from a group calling themselves the United Patriots. The email was signed by Obraz, Nacionalni Stroj, Dveri, Krv i čast, Konačni obračun, the Tsar Lazar Guard and far-right politicians Kosta Čavoški, Siniša Vučinić and Goran Davidović. [7] However, Kosta Čavoški denied having anything to do with the email claiming he was set up by anti-Serbian NGOs. The Dveri movement, as well as Mladen Obradović, the leader of Obraz, also denied having any part in the email. Željko Vasiljević, the leader of the Tsar Lazar Guard, distanced himself from any use of violence. Nevertheless, the march was canceled. [9]
In February 2014 Health Minister Slavica Đukić Dejanović voiced support for the legalization of medical marijuana. [10]
The first legal association advocating the legalization of medical marijuana in Serbia, the Initiative to Change the Cannabis Legislation (IRKA), was registered in early 2014. [11]
On 5 November 2014 the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade hosted a panel called "Times are Changing, Legalize It", organized by the libertarian group Students for Liberty. The event was interrupted when members of Serbian Action stormed the lecture hall and started harassing the students. [12]
On 18 January 2015 an organization called Lekalizacija Srbije (a conflation of lek meaning medicine and legalizacija meaning legalization), advocating the legalization of medical marijuana was formed in Belgrade by journalist Antonije Kovačević. [13] On 19 February 2015 the organization submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Health to legalize medical marijuana, citing several hundred cases of successful treatment. [14] On 7 July 2015 in Belgrade's Mixer House, Lekalizacija Srbije organized a festival promoting medical marijuana called "One Plant, Many Good Things". One of the speakers was Slavica Đukić Dejanović. [15]
On 4 September 2015 the IRKA initiative held the second (successful) Cannabis March in Belgrade, what they called a "gathering of the largest disenfranchised minority in Serbia". [16] The march was attended by actor Sergej Trifunović. [17]
In early 2016 the Expert Committee for the Use of Cannabis for Medical Purposes, composed by the Ministry of Health, proposed legalizing three cannabis-based drugs - Sativex, Dronabinol and Nabilone, and that cannabis oil should stay illegal. [18]
On 24 September 2016 the IRKA initiative held the first Cannabis March in Novi Sad. The march was attended by pop singer Marina Perazić. [19]
On 23 June 2017 Goran Čabradi, the leader and sole parliamentary representative of the Green Party, introduced a bill in the National Assembly to legalize medical marijuana in Serbia. [20]
Belgrade is the capital of Serbia.
Marija Šerifović is a Serbian singer. Born in Kragujevac, she is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, Finland with "Molitva", becoming Serbia's first and to date only winning entry.
Slavica Đukić Dejanović is a Serbian politician serving as minister of education since 2023. A long-time member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, she previously served as minister of family care in the transitional government of Milomir Minić, president of the National Assembly of Serbia from 2008 to 2012, acting president of Serbia after the resignation of Boris Tadić, minister of health from 2012 to 2014, and minister without portfolio in charge of demography and population policy from 2016 to 2020.
OT is a Serbian pop/rock band founded in Belgrade in 2009. It was formed by four contestants of Operacija trijumf, the Balkan version of Endemol's Fame Academy. The contestants Vukašin Brajić, Đorđe Gogov, Nikola Paunović and Nikola Sarić are commonly known as the OT Rockers, due to their affirmation to the rock music.
Milenko Topić is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player.
Belgrade Waterfront, known in Serbian as Belgrade on Water, is an urban renewal development project headed by the Government of Serbia aimed at improving Belgrade's cityscape and economy by revitalizing the Sava amphitheater, a neglected stretch of land on the right bank of the Sava river, between the Belgrade Fair and Branko's bridge. It was started in 2014 with the reconstruction of the Belgrade Cooperative building, which was finished in June of the same year. It is the second largest mixed use complex under construction in Europe, just after Minsk Mir, worth $3.5 billion. Belgrade Waterfront complex will include 10,000 residential units, bilingual elementary school and kindergartens, luxury hotels including St. Regis, the largest shopping mall in southeast Europe Galerija, and public buildings. In total, about 1.8 million square meters will be built.
Siniša Mali is a Serbian economist and politician serving as deputy prime minister of Serbia since 2022 and as minister of finance since 2018. A member of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), he previously served as mayor of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018, and as the president of the Temporary Council of Belgrade from 2013 to 2014. Following the dismissal of Rade Basta in June 2023, he has also served as acting minister of economy.
Boško Obradović is a Serbian politician who is the founder and leader of the right-wing political party Dveri. He was the party's nominee for the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.
Cannabis in Hawaii is illegal for recreational use, but decriminalized for possession of three grams or less. Medical use was legalized through legislation passed in 2000, making Hawaii the first state to legalize medical use through state legislature rather than through ballot initiative.
Cannabis in Michigan is legal for recreational use. A 2018 initiative to legalize recreational use passed with 56% of the vote. State-licensed sales of recreational cannabis began in December 2019.
Cannabis in Argentina is decriminalized for personal use in small amounts and for consumption in private locations, the Supreme Court ruled in 2009.
Cannabis in Slovakia is illegal for all purposes and possession of even small amounts of the drug can lead to lengthy prison terms. Possession or use of small amounts of cannabis is punishable by up to eight years in prison. In April 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported that Robert Fico, the incoming Slovak prime minister, might push for partial legalisation of cannabis possession, and has argued for the legalisation of possession of up to three doses of cannabis for personal use.
Goran Čabradi is a politician in Serbia. He has served in the National Assembly of Serbia since 2016 as the leader and sole parliamentary representative of the Green Party.
The 2017–18 Basketball League of Serbia is the 12th season of the Basketball League of Serbia, the highest professional basketball league in Serbia. It is also 74th national championship played by Serbian clubs inclusive of nation's previous incarnations as Yugoslavia and Serbia & Montenegro.
OPEN Fest Sarajevo is the largest international libertarian festival in Europe. It is held annually in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is dedicated to the promotion of ideas of liberty and human rights. The Festival promotes economic and political freedoms, together with the fundamental rights of the individual. The festival was established by the Multi Group in cooperation with the Atlas Network, Students for Liberty and the Rising Tide Foundation. The first edition of the festival hosted over 10,000 guests, 50 NGO's and 40 international speakers.
Stefan Đurić, better known as Rasta, is a Serbian rapper and singer from Priština. He gained mainstream recognition with his singles "Kavasaki" (2014) and "Cavali" (2015), and is additionally known for popularizing the Auto-Tune pitch correction effect in the western Balkans and for often promoting marijuana in his songs.
Srđan Nogo is a Serbian politician. He was a prominent member of the right-wing Dveri party for several years until his expulsion in February 2019. In August 2020, he was arrested in Belgrade and charged with inciting sedition under article 309 of the Criminal Code of Serbia.
I Live for Krajina was a regionalist political party in Serbia, centered in the Timok Valley in the eastern part of the country. Its leader was Boško Ničić. The party won two mandates in the National Assembly of Serbia in the 2012 Serbian parliamentary election as part of the United Regions of Serbia (URS) alliance.
Local elections were held in Belgrade on 3 April 2022 to elect members of the City Assembly. Alongside the election, national-level general elections and local elections in 12 other towns and municipalities were held on the same day.
On 3 May 2023, a school shooting occurred at Vladislav Ribnikar Model Elementary School in the Vračar municipality of Belgrade, Serbia. The shooter, identified as a 13-year-old male student, opened fire on students and staff, resulting in the deaths of ten individuals, including nine students and a security guard. Six others, five students and a teacher, also sustained injuries. Nine people were killed instantly, while one student died of injuries on 15 May.
