MP Anka Mrak-Taritas of the liberal Glas party on Thursday called on Health Minister, Vili Beros, to remove cannabis from the list of dangerous drugs and to adopt rules to allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis for medical purposes.

Mrak-Taritas warned that although legislation had been adopted two years ago that formally allowed cannabis to be cultivated for medical purposes, the officially proscribed list of dangerous substances has not been revised in the meantime. No new regulation has been adopted to regulate medical cannabis, which means that it is still not possible to obtain a license to grow the formally legal cultivation of cannabis.

“Let’s finish this (process) so that cannabis can finally be produced and sold for medical purposes in Croatia,” she told reporters on Thursday, adding that the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) had adopted a recommendation in late 2020 from the World Health Organization (WHO) which called for cannabis and cannabis resin to be removed from the list of strongly addictive dangerous substances.

“Its negative effects notwithstanding, the WHO decided that cannabis can have a positive effect in reducing pain and nausea, and in alleviating symptoms of anorexia, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis,” Mrak-Taritas said.