Legalization of cannabis for medical purposes – legislation in Republic of Macedonia and public health-

The use of cannabis-based preparations in traditional medicine has existed for over a thousand years and has been documented in many countries around the world for the treatment of spasticity of muscles, convulsions, pain, nausea and vomiting, and stimulation of appetite. But, the clinical use of cannabis is limited because of legal and ethical reasons, as well as limited evidence of the benefits. By changing the Law on the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in the Republic of Macedonia, it is enable to use these products with strictly controlled composition and quality only for medical purposes as an adjuvant therapy, but not as a substitute for conventional medical therapy. In this way, we follows the trends in the European Union, where by October 2015, a total of 13 countries allowed the use of cannabis for medical purposes: Czech Republic, Finland, Romania, Italy, Spain, Netherland, France, Austria , Portugal, Germany, England, Slovenia and Croatia. Each of these countries is a signatory to the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971, the UN Convention against unauthorized marketing of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in 1988, as Republic of Macedonia. Changes of the Law on the Narcotic Drugs in order to legalize cannabis was done in two steps: 1) regulating the cultivation, processing and marketing of cannabis preparations in the same way as opium poppy; and 2) movement of cannabis from group I of controlled substances for which the rule "use of drugs for very limited medical purposes" is applied in group II of controlled substances that "can be issued or sold to individuals only with a doctor's prescription". Since August 2016, patients in Macedonia have access to these strictly controlled products, instead of buying them "on the black market" and facing with legal consequences