A new organisation, the “Initiative for the legislation of cannabis,” is calling for the legalisation of marijuana for medical purposes in Serbia.

Drasko Nikodijevic says the goals of the association are to change the law to allow the use of the drug for medical treatment, open up points of sale on prescription and allow registered patients to grow marijuana for their personal use.

“Each of us knows someone struggling with a tumour… and such patients are virtually condemned to death, while on the other side of the world the medical community is buzzing about the largely curative effects of marijuana,” Nikodijevic said.

Under Serbia’s current legislation, marijuana is on the list of prohibited substances.

The plant has been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine and supporters of its use say its benign effects have been proved in the treatment of a series of difficult diseases, from multiple sclerosis to Aids and the side effects of chemotherapy.

Nikodijevic said that politicians should have an interest in amending drug legislation as part of the wider process of harmonizing Serbian law with EU countries.

In January, Serbia started EU accession talks and harmonizing its laws with those of the EU is a key part of the process.

The group has meanwhile won the significant support of Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, the outgoing Health Minister, who has backed legalisation moves for medical purposes, noting that this would not mean legalisation of the use of marijuana in general.

“Legalisation for medical uses does not mean legalizing of drugs in general,” she said. “Every substance can be both a medicine and a poison,” she added.

The minister cautioned that the process of registration of marijuana as a legal drug is bound to take a long time.

“It starts with preclinical phase of testing the supstance, then the clinical stage, and then the Agency for Medicines must register it as an ingredient in medicine,” Djukic Dejanovic explained.