Cannabis oil with a lower concentration of cannabinoids that have psychotropic effects should be available to patients without prescription from this week, Marija Darkovska, the head of Macedonia’s Agency for Medical Drugs, said on Tuesday.

Also this week, Macedonian medical specialists start training on how to prescribe the stronger cannabis products that should become available by the end of June.

“There will be two types of oils in the pharmacies. The one with less than 0.2 per cent cannabinoids will be available without prescription beginning this week,” said Darkovska.

The exact origins of the cultivation of cannabis under artificial light are hard to pinpoint. But it's sure that the United States, especially California, and the Netherlands were the indoor culture's nurseries in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Breeders like Old Ed Holloway, Dave Watson (aka Sam the Skunkman), Wernard Bruining, Nevil Schoenmakers, Robert C. Clarke and Ben Dronkers as well as a few other pioneers met and worked in Amsterdam to create the basis for the thousands of strains that cannabis patients and recreational users enjoy worldwide today. 

Legal marijuana is already a global industry and the U.S. is behind the curve.

When you think of the legal marijuana industry, you think of Colorado and California. But marijuana is not uniquely American, nor is the legalization movement.

According to a recent report by a joint EU watchdog, published on May 24, 2016; Europeans spend a colossal 24 billion euros ($26.8 billion) on illicit substances which, according to the report, fund crime syndicates and terrorism and“are one of the key threats to the security of the EU”.

The largest proportion of this expenditure goes to cannabis, which makes up 38% of the illegal drug market in Europe. That amounts to 9.3 billion euros ($10.4 billion). The majority of this cannabis is grown within European borders.

While at least one study has suggested that cannabinoid therapy could help treat symptoms of Huntington's Disease, the first-ever clinical trial investigating the efficacy of cannabis extracts in treating the disease was less than positive. 

Barcelona’s first-ever female mayor has just accomplished another first: proposing to keep the city’s famous Cannabis Social Clubs in business by implementing workable official regulations.

Last summer, Ada Colau became mayor in the historic Catalan capital. This week, she granted amnesty to existing clubs, allowing more than a hundred that were slated for permanent closure to remain open and continue shared cannabis cultivation and distribution.

But it’s an open question as to whether Mayor Colau’s move will allow the city to keep the title of Europe’s New Amsterdam, as the rules seem to change with each new municipal government.

As countries around the world have started to relax their laws on medical marijuana, cannabis is still completely outlawed in Serbia. While studies show that the drug—specifically in the form of cannabis oil—can have positive health effects for people suffering from terminal illnesses, doctors in the country remain skeptical. 

Serbians looking for an alternative way to treat terminal illnesses like cancer and multiple sclerosis are forced to illegally obtain the highlyexpensive cannabis oil or attempt to make it themselves, despite the threat of jail time.

As a European, it’s been exhilarating to watch how the cannabis industry is sweeping across the U.S. The new brands, technology, science, culture, and great products are awe-inspiring. As much as I would love things to follow the same path here in Europe, I just can’t help but feel that things are not going to.

A Winding Road

The takeaway from April’s United Nations meetings on international drug policy, at least in Italy: We’re ready to culturally embrace cannabis and other recreational drugs, but we’re bureaucratically hamstrung when it comes to making it happen.

Marco Perduca, Italy’s permanent representative to the U.N. from the Radical Party, said that while many countries are calling for sensible policy and seeking to regulate and legalize cannabis, other countries continue to violate human rights in the suppression of the cannabis trade — and thus stymie progressive efforts worldwide.

The Czech Republic’s drug policy was praised as a “great example of a successful liberal approach to drugs” during last month’s UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in New York City. But the actions of the National Anti-Drug Agency, the Czech equivalent of the DEA, toward the country’s cannabis community reveals a painful gap between cannabis theory and practice. 

The first sign that something was changing in the Czech Republic came in the summer of 2013, when police accused a journalist of “spreading and encouraging drug abuse.” Why? He made an innocent joke about the improvement of sight after smoking a joint. It did not come to a trial, because the jurisdictional district court judge refused to open such a case.