Montenegro sets permit rules for hemp farmers and their whole harvest

Montenegro’s hemp farmers received detailed permit rules on 8 July 2014. The route covered food and industrial crops containing no more than 0.2% THC in dry plant material, with paperwork linking the farmer, the field, the seed and a buyer for the entire harvest.^[1]

A buyer came before the harvest

The earlier drug law already provided for food and industrial hemp cultivation. Its 2013 consolidated text required a growing permit and a contract with a registered buyer for the whole crop. Farmers then had four months after harvest to hand over everything covered by that contract.^[2]

The plant-health authority issued cultivation permits and had to notify the police within seven days. Scientific legal entities had a separate exception: they could grow without that permit if they registered the land used for research with the plant-health authority.^[2]

The application followed the field and seed

Agriculture Minister Petar Ivanović signed the implementing rules in June. They required applicants to provide their identity and contact details, the purchase-contract number, the crop species and variety, and the land-registry parcel and area. Applicants also had to state the quantity of certified seed and their planned sowing and harvest dates.^[1]

A permit identified its holder, the crop, the parcel, the area and the intended purpose. The authority kept a written or electronic register of the permits it issued. Together, these requirements gave officials a record connecting each authorised crop to a particular grower and piece of land.^[1]

Hemp land had an annual deadline

Growers also had to report the land used for cultivation. For hemp, the deadline was 1 May each year; the rules gave poppy growers a different deadline tied to sowing. The hemp notification repeated the variety, certified-seed quantity, growing area and planned crop dates.^[1]

The underlying law required growers to report circumstances suggesting that their crop could be diverted into unauthorised drug production. It also provided individual fines for failures involving permits, purchase contracts and delivery of the whole harvest.^[2]

Patients pursued another route

Later that year, Liberal Party MP Andrija Popović proposed allowing medical cannabis for pain associated with serious illnesses. His proposal brought patients’ treatment into a debate alongside the existing system for licensed food and industrial crops.^[3]

The Montenegro profile explains the possession and supply penalties alongside the hemp-permit route.