North Macedonia expressly excludes personal drug possession from criminal punishment

North Macedonia made the personal-possession exception explicit in February 2023. An amendment inserted paragraph 6 into Criminal Code Article 215, excluding punishment for a person who possesses narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances for personal use. The law was published on 17 February and took effect eight days later, on 25 February.^[1]

The purpose of possession mattered

The new paragraph sat within the offence of unauthorised production and distribution. It distinguished keeping drugs for oneself from conduct involving production, sale or supply to others. The amendment did not set a number of grams that automatically counted as personal possession.^[1][2]

The surrounding offence remained serious. As the Constitutional Court later explained, the ordinary range under Article 215 was three to ten years, with six months to three years for a smaller-quantity offence. That reduced range concerned a production or distribution offence; it was not the punishment for every person holding a small amount.^[2]

A challenge did not remove the exemption

An applicant challenged paragraph 6, arguing that the distinction created problems for the rule of law. On 24 December 2025, the Constitutional Court declined to open review. It treated the absence of supply or encouragement of another person’s use as central to understanding personal possession.^[2]

The court also distinguished Article 216, which penalises giving drugs for someone to use, providing premises or otherwise enabling their use. The ordinary range for that offence was one to five years. A person could not rely on the personal-possession paragraph to authorise supplying a group.^[2]

Police practice still required scrutiny

A Coalition Margins report covering February to August 2023 described seven documented police-violation cases involving eight people. Six of those cases concerned recreational drug users. The organisation argued that the amendment had not stopped unlawful police treatment of users.^[3]

These were documented complaints, rather than a national count of arrests or convictions. They show why an express protection in the code should be distinguished from claims that police attention or mistreatment had disappeared.^[3]

Use had its own public-order provision

Article 20 of the public-order law separately penalised drug use, with a fine of one hundred to two hundred and fifty euros payable in denars in the consolidated text. Its use offence should not be confused with the criminal-code treatment of possessing drugs solely for oneself.^[4]

The country profile now records the 2023 exemption and its 2025 constitutional review, while keeping production, supply and use in their separate legal categories.^[1][2][4]