Expand Slovenia: supply ranges, research permits and corrected medical timeline

20132014-07-05

Slovenia reclassifies cannabinoids for medical usepermits registered cannabinoid medicines

Cannabinoids were moved to the group of drugs that may be used in medicine, which allowed doctors toDoctors could prescribe registered cannabinoid medicines after a new drug-classification decree took effect. The government approved the change on 19 June 2014, following debate over a citizen cannabis bill; cannabis itself remained controlled.

NIJZ and Health Ministry — Cannabis in medicine, published 19 June 2014 Slovenia Official Gazette — drug-classification decree, published 20 June 2014, article 5 Wikipedia — Cannabis in Slovenia

Not legal. Growing cannabis with THC is prohibited and can be prosecuted as production, which carries one to ten years under Article 186 of the Criminal Code.[@kz1bwc] A government-backed draft notified to the EU in July 2025 would allow four plants per adult (six per household … for medical and scientific purposes is separately lawful under the 2025 Act.[@medical_act]

Unlawfully manufacturing or selling a narcoticUnauthorised production, sale or buying or keeping it in order to resell it, is a criminal offence carryingholding drugs for resale carries one to ten years under Article 186.[@kz1bwccriminal_current] Giving drugs to another person for use or providing premises carries six months to eight years under Article 187; specified aggravated cases carry one to twelve years.[@criminal_current] The [2025 personal-use draft would permit](/history/slovenia-personal-use-bill-2025/) proposed limited unpaid sharing between adults, but it is not law.[@tris] Specified aggravated supply carries three to fifteen years; organised groups or dealer networks carry five to fifteen years.[@criminal_current] Passing cannabis prescribed in one’s own name to someone else carries a separate €200–€1,000 misdemeanour fine.[@medical_act]

kz1bwccriminal_current, tris, medical_act

No adult-use source. In a June 2024 consultative referendum 51.6% of voters backed cannabis for limited personal use, and a bill followed, but there are still no clubs or shops.[@boc] The medical route openedproduction framework changed in August 2025.[@medical_act]

word Hašiškonoplja · lang Slovenian · meaning hashishcannabis or hemp; ordinary and official term · sources fran_konoplja, word marihuana · lang Slovenian · meaning dried cannabis tops, flowers and leaves · sources fran_marihuana, word kanabis · lang Slovenian · meaning cannabis; synonym of the Indian hemp plantmarihuana · sources wiktionary-hasis-slfran_marihuana, word trava · lang Slovenian · meaning “grass”; slang for cannabis · sources fran_marihuana, word gandža · lang Slovenian · meaning slang for cannabis · sources fran_marihuana, word hašiš · lang Slovenian · meaning hashish; cannabis resin · sources nijz2012

The [2025 Medical and Scientific Cannabis Act](/history/slovenia-medical-law-2025/) allows licensed cultivation and processingcreates a licensing route through [JAZMP](https://www.jazmp.si/) for medical cannabis production and research purposeswholesale supply. Nothing for adult use[@medical_act] Patients receive prescribed products through pharmacies.[@medical_act] Separate [research-permit rules effective in March 2026](/history/slovenia-research-permit-rules-2026/) require scientific plans, traceability, security and waste-destruction arrangements.[@research2026]

medical_act, research2026

Since 20 August The [2025 any physician may prescribe cannabisAct](/history/slovenia-medical-law-2025/) permits prescribing for any conditionindication on theira doctor’s professional judgment, for up to a month at a time, either reimbursed by health insurance or self-paidmost one month’s treatment per month.[@medical_act] Medical flower and preparations are available onA first prescription. This requires an examination, repeated after twelve months for continuing treatment, and dispensing is one of Europe's most open medical laws on paper; supply is still being built upthrough pharmacies.[@medical_act] The programme follows theNIJZ’s report on 2024 referendumprescribing records 1, in which 66666 prescriptions and 2,091 compounded preparations from reporting pharmacies; reporting was incomplete.7% backed growing[@prescribing2024] That report describes flower and processing cannabis for medical purposesstandardised extracts as permitted but not yet in routine use, alongside cannabinoid preparations.[@bocprescribing2024]

medical_act, bocprescribing2024

Possession of a smaller quantity for onePersonal-time personal use is a misdemeanour underpossession misdemeanours involve confiscation of the drugs Act.[@zpppd] Unlawfully manufacturing or selling a narcotic is a separate criminal offence carryingA pharmacy certificate under the 2025 medical Act documents authorised possession and use for one month after dispensing.[@medical_act] Passing prescribed cannabis to ten yearsanother person carries a €200–€1,000 fine under that Act.[@kz1bwcmedical_act]

zpppd, kz1bwcmedical_act

Hemp sits insideIndustrial hemp cultivation requires a permit for agricultural rules rather than drug law: seed and seedlings may move only through authorised channels underland registered to the 2022 propagation-material rulesfarm, and low-using varieties on the EU common catalogue with at most 0.3% THC hemp products are sold.[@hemp_rulehemp2024] Growing highPermitted purposes include food, seed, fibre, animal feed, cosmetics and other industrial uses.[@hemp2024] In [2025 inspections](/history/slovenia-hemp-inspections-2025/), one of fifty samples exceeded the THC cannabis outside licensed medical or scientific production stays prohibitedlimit and can be prosecuted as productionwas referred to police; inspectors also checked seed invoices and quality declarations.[@medical_acthempinspection2025]

hemp_rulehemp2024, medical_acthempinspection2025

No THC limit is set: the offence is committed if a drug isArticle 106 treats drugs detected in blood or saliva as evidence of prohibited influence, with no numerical THC allowance.[@euda_ddtraffic] Police may stop at random and test on suspicion, with a roadside oral-fluid test and blood or urine taken at a hospital. The offence carries a fine startsof at least €1,200 euros and the driver receives 18eighteen penalty points for motor drivers.[@traffic] A urine-only finding instead leads to a medical fitness examination.[@traffic] For prescribed psychoactive medicines, which means losing the licence and relaw provides an examination-takingbased exception where use followed the test after six months to a year; there is no prison sentenceprescribed therapy and doctor’s instructions.[@euda_ddtraffic]

euda_ddtraffic

TheResearchers can seek permission under the 2025 Medical and Scientific Cannabis Act opens licensed cultivation and processing for medical and [2026 implementing rules](/history/slovenia-research purposes; nothing for adult use was enacted-permit-rules-2026/), with a research plan, equipment, traceability and security arrangements.[@trisresearch2026] No separate research programmeSlovenian forensic scientists Rajko Koren and Katja Benčina presented analyses of seized self-medication products at Bled in May 2016.[@forensic2016] They measured cannabinoids in extracts, trial or published study was established by the retained sourcesoils, suppositories, creams and honey and detected solvents including isopropyl alcohol in some samples.[@trisforensic2016]

trisresearch2026, forensic2016

Clubs exist without any legal basis. A EuropeEuropean cannabis-wideclub survey of cannabis social clubs carried outconducted in 2018 and –2019 received answersresponses from two Slovenian clubs in Slovenia, and its authors could not say how many more were activewithout establishing a national total.[@pardal20] The study notes that clubs sit in a legally sensitive position and that many have been dissolved after court decisions or police raids. No law in Slovenia providesTheir collective supply has no statutory recreational exemption: giving drugs for them; Malta (since 2021)use and Germany (since 2024) license non-profit cannabis associations, but onlyproviding premises remain offences under their own lawsArticle 187.[@de_cang,mt_cap628criminal_current] Nothing more recent was foundLicensed medical production and pharmacy dispensing follow the separate 2025 Act.[@pardal20medical_act]

pardal20, de_cangcriminal_current, mt_cap628medical_act

PISRS — Criminal Code KZ-1, consolidated register Official Gazette — Road Traffic Rules Act, official consolidated text Official Gazette — Cannabis scientific-research permit rules, 2026 NIJZ — Prescription medicine consumption in Slovenia in 2024 Agriculture Ministry — Cannabis cultivation and medical/industrial opportunities, 16 February 2024 Agricultural Inspectorate — 2025 industrial hemp sampling completed, 23 October 2025 Koren and Benčina — Cannabis preparations for self-medication, chemical characterisation Fran — Slovenian dictionaries, marihuana and synonyms Fran — Slovenian dictionaries, konoplja NIJZ — National report on the drug situation 2012 Bundesgesundheitsministerium — FAQ zum Cannabisgesetz (non-profit cultivation associations, since 2024) Malta — Authority on the Responsible Use of Cannabis Act (Cap. 628), licensing non-profit cannabis associations since 2021 Wiktionary — hašiš (Slovenian: hashish) 16 unchanged

label Production or supply · treatment criminal · term Unauthorised manufacture and trade · prison min 1 year · prison 10 years · note Article 186(1), label Giving for use or providing premises · treatment criminal · term Facilitating use · prison min 6 months · prison 8 years · note Article 187(1), label Aggravated facilitation · treatment criminal · term Facilitating use · prison min 1 year · prison 12 years · note Article 187(2): protected persons, multiple people, specified premises or abuse of professional position, label Aggravated supply · treatment criminal · term Unauthorised manufacture and trade · prison min 3 years · prison 15 years · note Article 186(2): protected persons, specified premises or abuse of position, label Organised group or dealer network · treatment criminal · term Unauthorised manufacture and trade · prison min 5 years · prison 15 years · note Article 186(3), label Passing personally prescribed cannabis to another person · treatment civil · term Medical cannabis transfer misdemeanour · fine min 200 · fine 1000 · note ZKMZN Article 50(3)

EUR

Slovenia asked its voters two questions about cannabis in 2024. A year later parliament answered the easier one’s Medical and Scientific Cannabis Act took effect on 20 August 2025, more generously than almost any country in Europe. ## Before Possessingcreating a small amount is a misdemeanour with a small fine;licensing framework for domestic medical production and dealing are crimesscientific work.[@1] Parliament adopted it on 24 July, and President Nataša Pirc Musar promulgated it on 1 August.[@1] ## Medicine access already existed Doctors couldhad been able to prescribe registered cannabinoid medicines from since the [20132014 classification change](/history/slovenia-cannabinoids-2013/), but only.[@4] NIJZ’s report on a special prescription2024 medicine consumption describes access through registered medicines, special imports and with no legal way to grow cannabis in Slovenia every product was imported compounded preparations. In the [referendum of 9 June 2024@2](/history/slovenia-referendum- Reporting pharmacies recorded 1,666 prescriptions and 2,091 compounded cannabinoid preparations during 2024/), 66with incomplete coverage of pharmacies.71 per cent backed growing cannabis for medicine[@2] Flower and 51.57 per cent backed growing and possessing it for personalstandardised extracts were permitted, but the report said their prescribing had not entered routine use. Neither vote was binding[@2] Those figures describe the year before the new production law.[@2] ## The law The National Assembly adoptedPrescribing remained a medical decision Under the new Act on Cannabis for Medical and Scientific Purposes on 24 July 2025, by 50 votes to 29 according to Business of Cannabis. It took effect on 20 August. For patients: - Anya doctor may prescribe, cannabis medicines for any indication, or condition on professional judgment. - A prescription covers, with at most one month and is filled only in a pharmacy’s treatment per month. - A new[@1] Patients need an examination is needed everybefore the first prescription and another after twelve months for continuing treatment. - Passing prescribed[@1] Dispensing takes place through pharmacies, which issue a certificate documenting authorised possession and use for one month.[@1] A patient who gives cannabis dispensed in their name to someonesomebody else bringsfaces a fine of €200 to –€1,000 eurosfine. For producers: - Any company that meets[@1] ## Producers needed authorisation Medical production comes under the conditions may get a permit, valid for 15 years, from the medicines agency, [JAZMP](https://www. - Growing must be indoorsjazmp.si/), in securedwith requirements for secure premises, to pharmaceutical standardsresponsible personnel, quality and traceability. - A permit lapses if nothing reaches the market[@1] Growing and processing operate within two yearsthat licensed chain, while retail dispensing stays with pharmacies. ## What is still open[@1] The implementing rules were due within 90 days to six monthsAct separately provides for scientific production, trade and supply is still being built uppossession under Health Ministry permission. Home growing stays prohibited[@1] That route covers legal entities conducting research or educational work, also for patientswith conditions attached to obtaining and using cannabis.[@1] ## Research applications gained detailed rules The second referendum question is unanswered. A [personal-use billimplementing rules effective on 7 March 2026](/history/slovenia-personalresearch-usepermit-billrules-20252026/) require a scientific plan explaining the project’s purpose, methods and goals and the responsible researchers’ credentials.[@3] Applicants must document equipment and traceability from two coalition parties would allow four plants per adultseed or planting material through production and study.[@3] Growing projects must follow good agricultural and collection practice, 7 g in publicwhile security plans cover access to the premises.[@3] Applicants also need arrangements for destroying material and 150 g at home; it has not been enactedreporting its disposal. So only one of [@3] The [Slovenia's profile](/country/si/) scores moved: access, from 1 to 2follows these licensed medical and scientific routes alongside the separate personal-possession rules.[@1,3]

opus-5.5

Official Gazette — Medical and Scientific Cannabis Act (ZKMZN), 2025 NIJZ — Prescription medicine consumption in Slovenia in 2024 Official Gazette — Scientific cannabis permit rules, 2026 NIJZ and Health Ministry — Cannabis in medicine Uradni list RS — Zakon o konoplji za medicinske in znanstvene namene (ZKMZN), No. 60/2025 Business of Cannabis — Inside Slovenia's new "revolutionary" medical cannabis law (27 August 2025) Business of Cannabis — Slovenia takes steps toward cannabis legalisation (1 August 2025) IDPC / Drug Policy Network South East Europe — Slovenia voted on cannabis cultivation and use (June 2024)