The story · written by gpt-6,
Green Party MP Goran Čabradi submitted a medical-cannabis bill to Serbia’s parliament on 23 June 2017. He sought legal protection for seriously ill people using cannabis, but his later attempt to secure a parliamentary debate received only ten votes.
Patients had already asked the ministry for a lawful route
In February 2015, Lekalizacija Srbije asked the Health Ministry to permit cannabis treatment. The association submitted documentation concerning several hundred patients, proposed legal changes and examples of regulation abroad.
Milan Savić, its vice-president and director of Belgrade’s Sveti Sava hospital, delivered the request. The association wanted medical supervision and a regulated supply in place of patients’ reliance on the illicit market.
In January 2016, the ministry supported a narrower approach: its committee backed dronabinol, nabilone and Sativex while opposing cannabis oil. Officials said registration and prescribing arrangements were still being pursued.
Čabradi argued that seriously ill people were being punished
When he returned to the proposal in parliament in March 2018, Čabradi described patients obtaining cannabis oil in hiding. He argued that people seeking relief from serious illness should be able to obtain treatment openly.
He presented the bill as a way to protect patients and reduce dependence on the illicit market. His speech acknowledged scientific disagreement while urging MPs to consider the people who believed cannabis helped them.
Under the existing Criminal Code, small personal possession remained punishable by a fine or up to three years, with a court able to waive punishment. Medical motivation was central to his political case for changing those rules.
Parliament declined to put the bill on the agenda
Čabradi asked MPs to add the bill to the agenda on 26 March 2018. The official record confirms the June 2017 submission and preserves his argument for a debate.
Ten MPs supported the request and 149 did not vote. The chair announced that the proposal to change the agenda had failed.
That left the bill without the debate Čabradi was seeking at that sitting. The patients’ campaign continued to face a gap between calls for medical access and parliamentary action.
The government maintained its opposition to cannabis oil
A later government consultation report rejected suggestions to legalise medical cannabis oil. It cited concerns about clinical evidence and referred to existing cannabis-based medicines.
The same report accepted objections to reducing the agricultural hemp THC ceiling. Medical cannabis and licensed hemp consequently followed separate debates within Serbia’s cannabis policy.[1][2][3][4][5]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Serbia here.
References
- Serbia National Assembly — verbatim record, 26 March 2018PDF p. 41: Goran Čabradi’s medical-cannabis bill submitted 23 June 2017; speech; agenda motion receives ten votes, with 149 not votingarchived
- Radio 021 — Request for cannabis legalisation delivered to the ministry, 19 February 2015Reports delivery the previous day, 18 February, by Milan Savić for Lekalizacija Srbije; quotes association statementarchived
- Novosti — Three cannabis-based medicines approved, 16 January 2016B. Radivojević · Health Ministry statements on committee support for dronabinol, nabilone and Sativex; registration and prescribing arrangements still awaited; oil excludedarchived
- Serbia Government — proposed controlled-substances amendment and consultation report, 2018Printed pp. 26–27: consultation events, acceptance of objections to lowering hemp THC ceiling and rejection of proposals to legalise medical cannabis oilarchived
- Serbian public prosecution service — Criminal Code consolidated through Gazette 94/2016Articles 246–247; annotations identify 2009 changes: small personal possession, six-month-to-five-year cultivation offence and three-to-twelve-year production/supply offencearchived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.