At the beginning of 2015, the police raided CSC Maribor on the basis of some reports from one or more citizens, which stated that Sanjin Jašar was selling weed and misleading sick people into believing that cannabis is a cure for their disease. The police found around 7 kilos of cannabis around 200 ml of THC and CBD extract, 44 plants and equipment for 6 grow boxes where some of them were waiting for the patients to collect them.

After 3 or 4 reports police had to act although they (and the rest of Slovenia) knew from the beginning what the CSC Maribor is doing. It was already publicly announced in the parliament on a discussion about changing the law, where activists in Slovenia collected more than 10.000 signatures for legalizing cannabis back in 2013 and CSC Maribor contributed more than 1.000 signatures to this initiative.

Sanjin and Tomaž were charged with drug trafficking, which they denied at first. Later Sanjin confessed to selling and donating cannabis oil to patients and admitted that it was all his and only his doing and that Tomaž wasn’t guilty of anything mentioned in prosecutors documentation.
First, the judge agreed to invite 30 witnesses to the hearing and 30 more were proposed (the plan was to bring around 100 patients/members as witnesses). After first 4 witnesses testified she narrowed it down to only the ones living in Maribor, which was around 20 persons. She allowed 5 more, but not all of them.
The defence was based on proving that CSC Maribor, of which Sanjin Jašar is the president, was not a profitable organization because all the gained financial means were meant for patients/members. For example, the difference or what most people call ”profit” was meant for those who couldn’t afford to buy the extract. In the calculations, CSC Maribor donated more than 1 kilo of THC extract (Indica & Sativa) and around 5 kilos of CBD extract (hemp). It was also lending grow boxes with all the equipment to people so they could grow their own cannabis for free at their home.
Therefore many patients who came to testify clearly stated that they got the extract for free. The intention was to bring all witnesses (those who paid for cannabis and those who got it for free) for the judge to see the whole sad picture of how people were left behind by their state and how they had to go search for help from ”criminals”.

From those 25 stories some were very sad and the judge’s decision proves that there are representatives of law who in this crazy world still have the right balance between reason and heart. Both lawyers suggested to acquit the accused due to the fact that there was no harm committed and the actions even resulted in some benefits for the patients/members according to the “Necessity” Article 32:
“Any person who shall commit an act, which shall have elements of a criminal offence to avert an immediate threat to his life, physical integrity, personal freedom or property necessary for survival, which he has not caused himself, shall not be found guilty if such threat could not have been averted in any other way, and the perpetrator was not obliged to expose to it as well.”
The judge accepted this proposal for the first time in the history of the country.
The prosecutor can still file a complaint, so this is probably not the end of it, but as CSC Maribor stated: “We won the first halftime and the winds of change are on our side”.

Sanjin Jašar, president
Cannabis Social Club Maribor

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