Joe Spencer

North Macedonia’s medical cannabis industry is in crisis after a huge Serbian haul led to an operation that exposed roughly 40 tonnes of cannabis and triggered an urgent review of more than 60 domestic licences. Opaque licensing processes, widespread corruption suspicions and the lack of any public registry of authorised companies have undermined confidence in state oversight. This investigation maps how the record Serbian seizures tie back to operations inside North Macedonia and uncovers troubling links between private operators, officials and organized crime, raising urgent questions about political responsibility, institutional failure and criminal accountability in what may be the Balkans’ biggest medical cannabis scandal.