Ten associations of people with chronic diseased asked the Bosnian parliament to legalise cannabis for medical purposes, in an open letter sent on Wednesday.

“The topic of our letter is the legalisation of cannabis for medical purposes. As was scientifically proven and the public already familiarised (unlike some ministers), cannabis oil helps with many diseases – from the most difficult to the less harmful ones,” the associations wrote.

They argue that the World Health Organisation recommended the legalisation of cannabis for medical purposes, which was adopted by the European parliament which is a form of obligation for Bosnia to do as well.

“led by these recommendations, many countries adopted laws legalising medical cannabis and some of them are our neighbouring Croatia and Slovenia which went a step further and formed a research institute for all the possible forms of treatments with cannabis oil and cannabis in general,” their open letter said.

Asking does Bosnia always has to be the last in adopting such proposals, they noted that the competent body set by the Civil Affairs Ministry also confirmed the validity of requests for the legalisation of medical cannabis. They claim that the offered a set of solutions tackling the issue in the form of a resolution permitting the use of medical cannabis.

The open letter was signed by associations from Mostar, Tuzla, Kalesija, Bihac, Gracanica, Donji Vakuf, Velika Kladusa, eastern Herzegovina region and Cazin.