Medicinal plants

A visitor reacts while being photographed smelling medical cannabis flowers during Cannabisexpo 2020 exhibition of medical cannabis in Athens, Sunday. Greece was among the first countries to allow medical cannabis cultivation in Europe in 2017. [EPA]

The state of Illinois has legalized the use of marijuana, with the governor pardoning thousands of people with past convictions for use of small amounts of cannabis, AFP reported.

The law will allow residents over the age of 21 to legally purchase marijuana and repeal thousands of convictions across the state.

For Greek consumers and also for other Europeans using cannabis not as a drug but as a component of food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products is something new. This, after all, is the main reason the European market of 512 million people appears to have a particular potential for growth.

More than 11 tonnes of cannabis were found and seized in a specialized action by criminologists from the Ministry of Interior - Blagoevgrad and the gendarmerie. This is reported by police.

Police officers in the narcotics squad in Ioaninna, northwestern Greece, seized more than 73 kilograms of cannabis in the early hours of Tuesday morning after detaining a 43-year-old suspected drug dealer near the village of Kefalovryso.
Officers found the drugs during a search of the man's vehicle, which they stopped after receiving a tip-off.

Officers from the Kozani police narcotics unit have located and seized more than 1,000 cannabis trees from two farms in Karditsa, central Greece, and arrested four suspects - a 53-year-old Greek and three foreign nationals aged between 43 and 46 - believed to have been running the illegal cultivation, police said on Thursday.

Legal marijuana mogul Mike Straumietis, also known by his Instagram nicknames Big Mike and the Marijuana Don, posted photos on Wednesday of his meetings with North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Health Minister Venko Filipce and the mayor of Skopje's Centar municipality, Sasa Bogdanovic.

Turkish security forces seized over one ton of marijuana and around 500,000 cannabis roots amid an operation in eastern Turkey, local officials announced on Aug. 25.         

A Bulgarian has been detained in France with nearly 30 kilograms of cannabis, Radio Blio reported on their website.

The 55-year-old man traveled from Barcelona, ​​Spain, to Germany. He was checked by customs officials while he stopped in his car at a resting place on the A7 motorway in the south-east French department of Drôme on Wednesday night against Thursday.

More than 1 tonne of raw cannabis was seized by the port authorities in Gytheio, southern Greece. Cannabis has been found aboard a Delaware-flagged yacht called "My Dream," sailing in Lakonia Bay, according to BGNES.

Two foreign nationals, aged 42 and 28, were arrested.