Final month, Slovenia’s parliament handed a regulation to considerably open up entry to medical hashish, coinciding with the presentation of a separate draft regulation on legalisation for private use.

Whereas hashish has been categorised as a substance with potential therapeutic makes use of since 2017, till now, it might solely be prescribed with a particular prescription, that means sufferers and prescribing medical doctors confronted quite a few restrictions.

Moreover, home hashish manufacturing lacked a transparent framework, that means the entire hashish merchandise obtainable needed to be imported from overseas.

Now, beneath its new laws, Slovenia has launched a tightly managed system that permits licensed pharmaceutical producers to domesticate hashish beneath state supervision, however retains dwelling cultivation by personal people prohibited for now.

Medical hashish for any indication 

An important component of this invoice, much like the present state of affairs in Germany, is that medical doctors will have the ability to prescribe medical hashish for any situation, that means that the doorways have been flung open to entry for sufferers.

Restrictions nonetheless apply, nonetheless. Sufferers will solely have the ability to safe a most one month’s provide at a time from prescribers. Sufferers should additionally bear no less than one annual medical examination to proceed remedy.

One other important component is that extracts, resins and uncooked hashish crops ‘supposed for medical use’ are set to be faraway from the record of prohibited medication, a transfer that has seen Germany’s medical hashish market explode in dimension.

There’s nuance to this variation, although. THC, hashish’s psychoactive compound, will stay a managed substance, however will probably be permitted solely when being utilized in medical or scientific contexts.

Any dealing with of THC exterior these outlined makes use of will proceed to fall beneath drug management laws. The regulation goes some option to distinguishing non-psychoactive cannabinoids from THC, however how this may work in observe stays to be seen.

To guard sufferers from penalties, these prescribed hashish will obtain a “hashish card” alongside their medication, permitting them to show their authorized entry throughout checks.

JAZMP to supervise regulation

In keeping with the Slovenia Occasions, the Slovenian Company for Medicinal Merchandise and Medical Gadgets (JAZMP) is accountable for managing the licensing course of for manufacturing permits and permits for the commerce of medical hashish.

Manufacturing of medicinal hashish and associated medicines will probably be topic to rigorous high quality necessities, together with compliance with GACP, GMP, and European Pharmacopoeia requirements, which regulate the standard, manufacture, and testing of medicines.

The intention is to make sure a steady and dependable provide of hashish through pharmacies, licensed wholesalers, and healthcare suppliers, whereas decreasing dependence on imports and inconsistent entry. The regulation entered into power on 20 August 2025.

Subsequent steps

The Minister of Well being should now set out additional technical guidelines inside six months, together with necessities for securing cultivation websites, situations for granting manufacturing licences, and mechanisms for monitoring manufacturing. Throughout the identical interval, the ministry should additionally set up detailed standards for advertising and marketing authorisations and commerce supervision.

Rules on the classification, prescription, and shelling out of human medicines have to be harmonised with the brand new regulation inside 90 days, whereas JAZMP has 18 months to ascertain the technical infrastructure for digital affected person and manufacturing information.

Trade analysts forecast annual market progress of as much as 4%, with Slovenia’s medical hashish sector projected to succeed in €55 million by 2029.

The Medical Hashish Act entered into power 15 days after its publication within the Official Gazette on 20 August 2025, following a parliamentary vote of fifty in favour and 29 in opposition to. The measure was strongly backed by the governing left-liberal coalition, whereas the conservative opposition opposed it.