Serbia keeps hemp growing under licence and bans high-THC crops

Serbia’s parliament adopted a controlled-substances law on 22 December 2010 that kept hemp cultivation under agricultural licence and prohibited cannabis varieties capable of exceeding 0.3% THC. Farmers growing permitted crops had to meet specified fibre-and-seed purposes, while unauthorised drug cultivation remained subject to criminal penalties.

A wider licensing law sat beside the criminal offences

The 2009 Criminal Code amendment had separated small personal possession from production and supply and expressly addressed growing psychoactive cannabis. The new controlled-substances law organised licensing, imports, exports, medical handling and plant controls.

It replaced earlier legislation on drug production and trade. For farmers and businesses, it set out which authority could permit activity and what a permitted hemp crop could be used for.

Criminal sentencing remained governed by the Criminal Code, which then prescribed six months to five years for unauthorised cannabis cultivation.

Fibre and seed crops needed an agriculture permit

The law allowed hemp growing for fibre, seed for animal feed, further propagation, processing, seed-quality testing and seed trade. Both individuals and businesses needed a permit from the ministry responsible for agriculture.

The licensing route involved a production and purchase contract with a registered hemp business, or the grower’s own registration for the relevant activity. Permission was connected to a declared agricultural purpose and an authorised business relationship.

Growers also had to tell the agriculture and interior ministries about circumstances suggesting that the crop or its parts might be diverted to illicit drug production.

Landholders had to remove wild drug-producing plants

The law required destruction of wild plants from which controlled substances could be obtained. Responsibility fell on whoever owned, possessed or used the land.

If the plants remained seven days after an official destruction order, the agriculture ministry could destroy them. This placed an obligation on landholders alongside the prohibition on deliberately cultivating drug-producing plants.

Cannabis varieties capable of containing more than 0.3% THC were expressly prohibited. The law left the permitted varieties and detailed conditions for hemp cultivation to a ministerial rulebook.

Detailed permit rules followed in 2013

Agriculture Minister Goran Knežević’s 2013 rules required registered varieties below 0.3% THC, documented seed and an application before sowing, by 30 April. A permit covered one production year.

During later consultations, the government accepted objections to lowering the hemp THC ceiling, citing the consequences for varieties already grown in Serbia. Licensed agricultural hemp and the separate offences for psychoactive cannabis continue to shape Serbia’s cannabis rules.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}