Video
Treatment Returned, Then Confiscated Again: The Gendarmerie Stop of 19 October 2026
Bucharest · 19 October 2026 · 14 minutes · in Romanian, with a transcript in Romanian and English
On 19 October 2026, after 818 days, my medical cannabis treatment was returned to me under a final court ruling. Two hours later, in traffic, gendarmes stopped me and confiscated it again. The clip, almost a quarter of an hour long, starts with the return of the treatment, continues with the conversation on the pavement, where I present the ruling and the documents, and ends with what I said in the moment, outside the police station. The transcript is below, in Romanian and in English. The full story, with the timeline, is in the article the clip comes from.
I filmed the scene myself, for the documentary “Pacient. Infractor” (“Patient. Offender”) that Ștefan Schultz is making about my case. The video is published unaltered by its author on his own YouTube channel, so the gendarmes’ faces are visible.
From the article: Justice vs Abuse, Part 4: Returned, Then Taken Again
Transcript
Transcript of the clip, from its original subtitles (the speech is in Romanian; this is the English translation). Lines are not attributed to named people; paragraphs follow the scenes of the clip.
The colleague with the bodycam... Here, check it for me too, please...
A question for you...
Please... Any prohibited items or substances on you? What, what exactly? Prohibited, no. Controlled, yes. The phrase "prohibited substances" does not exist in Romania. Controlled substances. That is what the law says.
In the law?
Yes!
Now I am optimistic, I am calm, I think the hardest part is behind us and I hope it is just a simple formality and that only good things follow from here.
Preferably the situation will not happen again.
Yes, of course. I hope this is the last case of its kind and that from now on there will be a little more clarity, so that no one suffers such stress and entirely needless problems. Let's go!
It is a victory... an unexpected one, because... I had often come to lose... all optimism, but I am glad, hugely glad, that we have clarified the situation, that I have... proved my innocence, both mine and my wife's and I hope other Romanians, other people, will benefit from this situation, this clarification.
Of course, it is a success... both mine and my colleague's, the case itself, which is somewhat of a novelty, unfortunately, at national level, but I am glad it reached a positive outcome for Giancarlo and we hope that practice will align with the conduct of citizens who lawfully bring cannabis into Romania, for personal, medical purposes.
I am not a criminal, I am only a patient, and I think I have now managed to prove it... after 2 years... and I recovered my treatment after more than 800 days. I think it is 818 days. I can't wait to get home to hand my wife her treatment too, who... did not dare take the risk of travelling to Romania again until the situation was clarified. But now everything is resolved.
In any case, we inform you that you are being filmed too... Yes, I forgot, my colleague told me.
Here, check it for me too, please...
A question for you...
Please...
Items, prohibited substances, on you?
What, what exactly? Prohibited, no. Controlled, yes. The phrase "prohibited substances" does not exist in Romania, controlled substances, that is what the law says.
In the law?
Yes!
Medicinal treatment. Treatment, what does that mean? A legally prescribed medical treatment, with controlled substances. With a prescription, with a final court ruling ordering the return of property...
And what property is that, if not...?
Medicines.
Well, show me these medicines too, please.
Of course. Don't put the backpack down, put it over there... so it doesn't get dirty... We ask you... to take out all the items you have on you at this moment and show them to us one by one...
I suppose you know... I am going to a hearing now?
I don't know, I don't know...
Obviously you know I have possession.
I have no way of knowing where you are going.
You understand, if I had known where you were going.
A simple coincidence, I understand... Show me... these... What do these contain...? We will show you right away, give me the ruling. We'll tell you what it contains, in fact the court says what the bag contains...
Cannabis?
Yes. These have a seal and I would ask you not to break it, so that I can leave the country with them too. Just a moment. Well, just a moment...
We also have the number of...
Good, correct! You have... it orders the return to the respondents Cristea Giancarlo Adrian, right? Fine, in line with the medical prescription. But... for you, as possession, to walk around with these... In Romania it is prohibited, under the law, article 4, Law 143, it is prohibited.
How can it be prohibited, if the court gave them to us? Possession of... right, the court gave them to you, yes? So that you can consume them, as a return of property. But not to walk around the street with them. Because in Romania... Yes, I understood that you are coming from BCCO.
BCCO gave me these.
Yes, they gave you these.
It means I have been set up.
I have not set you up.
Then what do you call it?
But I have nothing to do with BCCO. We are the Capital Gendarmerie, we are a different institution. God forbid, there is no such thing. Fine, so, to understand, what is the problem? If you show me...
The prescription?
No. Listen to me for a moment. If you show me... that the court allows this gentleman to walk down the street with something like this or to hold cannabis on his person in public, then with the greatest pleasure... I will let him go on. You have something to be returned.
You do not have anything to hold it on the street, right? BCCO put this in my hand. What do you call that? They put it in my hand to go to Mars with it straight from BCCO! They were launching me into orbit! In Romania it is prohibited! So, possession... What does a return imply... possession? As long as I found you with them on you...
A return, if I return something to someone... Fine... Do you have anything from the court saying he is allowed to hold these... That is a new interpretation. Let's go to the police station and discuss it there at more length... That is a new interpretation. We will go to the headquarters of Police Station 17, because it is the closest.
and there we will establish... let's not stay in the street, we are blocking traffic... So we won't even make the hearing... I will be fined 3,000 lei if I don't make it... Will you listen to me for a moment? There, at Police Station 17, which is the closest to the area where we are. There is a register where it will be noted that you were taken to Police Station 17 and on that basis you will not be penalised.
You don't get to the hearing, not because you did not want to... In effect, you were stopped and... the police station headquarters. One more thing, I understand you are a lawyer, right? Yes, you are not going to hearings, I am not the one hearing him. I was going with him to the hearing, at... Understood, I only draw up a report.
You may go, but you will not have access to the station headquarters. Because he is not being heard, sir... I am not hearing him. So then what are you doing? I do not have the capacity of a police officer.
And so we go to the station in order to do what?
To draw up a report. With this envelope... Under what law? Under Law 143, I have already specified...
What does article 4 of 143 say?
What does it say?
Tell me too, what does article 4 say? Am I supposed to educate you? I spoke to you nicely. Well, I am not shouting, I am not shouting. Is it my job to educate you? As long as you are carrying this around... Well, you have this on you, you should know what article 4 says.
Well, yes, that is exactly why! Let's go to the station and clear it up, and if... take the gentleman's details and... I am not hearing him because I do not have the capacity... So we go to the station only so that the cannabis that was... returned to me by BCCO gets confiscated, right? I am taking it with a view to confiscation. Others decide whether it is confiscated or not.
I do not have the capacity to confiscate it myself. From there, what is decided by the court, by the anti- drug service, is their business. They know better than me and have a different capacity. I am taking it with a view to confiscation... Then we will see each other at the station, right?
A situation... a Kafkaesque one, I would say... They have just pulled us out of traffic again after making the medicines available to us. How do you feel, newly accused? You are not accused yet. I don't even have the words to explain what I feel now. It is incredible! It is hard for me to make sense of what is happening.
It is hard for me to understand how I got into trouble again.
We are back where we started, basically.
Yes. So you dare to follow the treatment prescribed by specialist doctors, to carry it in your bag. I can't believe what is happening to me. I consider it an abuse and I hope we resolve it faster than... ...last time. I don't want to go through this nightmare for another 2 years.
I can't take any more.
How do you feel physically? Are you okay?
For now, still... But I don't know what to do. I have to stay without treatment until Saturday. Again.
We'll see. Let's hope it won't get worse for you. My state of health, as for my state of mind... My state of mind, I left it at the station. What is happening is unreal, and so is the way the authorities decided to act, in a malicious and vindictive way, in my opinion. I feel it was all premeditated...
BCCO gave me the cannabis, I even asked them... whether I need anything else, besides the certificate signed by BCCO, whether I need other documents, okay? so that I would not have problems... and they told me there was no question of problems, because I recovered the cannabis from BCCO. Who would cause me problems?
and a few minutes later to be stopped in traffic like the worst criminal, as if I were some major drug trafficker... And not only the medical cannabis that BCCO made available to you was taken from you... by order of DIICOT... my current treatment, which I came into the country with this time, was confiscated.
which entered the country legally, which was checked at... Two days ago I entered the country, the border police checked all the documentation, checked the medication I had on me, gave me the green light to enter Romania, only for two days later to...
be accused of possessing prohibited substances, without right.
I believe I was set up. And I fell into the trap exactly as the Romanian authorities wanted. Let's see what the outcome will be.