As the ruling coalition is entertained with the DUI party’s sudden decision to rebrand itself as a “green party”, Zoran Zaev is making another push to expand the level of legalization of the marijuana business – in which his family and cronies are heavily investing.
The Government convened a meeting of a task group created to prepare the legalization of recreational use of marijuana. The group includes a number of left wing NGO groups who are pushing for marijuana legalization, as well as doctors and Interior Ministry representatives.

Macedonia allows growing of cannabis for oil extraction, but under the Zaev regime, dozens of new licenses were issued – often to people linked to Zaev. This caused a dozen of incidents including theft of marijuana from the farms, smuggling of drugs across the region and serious armed incidents. In the latest such incident, the commissioner of Prilep police and the personal driver of Zoran Zaev’s businessman cousin Trajce Zaev were arrested while escorting 200 kilograms of marijuana meant to be smuggled out of the country that originated in a farm apparently owned by Trajce Zaev through proxies.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister continues to talk almost obsessively about the alleged financial benefits that would flow from legalizing the production of marijuana meant for recreational use. Given the experience so far, this has caused fears that the legalization will be used to further expand growing of drugs meant to be smuggled abroad.