Is Weed Legal in Chile? Understanding Chile Cannabis and Marijuana Laws (2026)

Cannabis is partly legal in Chile. Medical cannabis is legal with a prescription, and adults may use and grow modest amounts in the privacy of their own homes without committing a crime. What remains illegal is selling, supplying and transporting cannabis, using it in public, and any commercial recreational market — none of which Chile has yet created. The result is a country with one of the most relaxed cannabis cultures in Latin America sitting on top of a drug law that still classifies the plant as a hard drug.

Chile has long reported some of the highest rates of cannabis use in the region, a deep-rooted home-growing culture and a steady stream of reform proposals. It was also an early mover on medical cannabis, becoming one of the first Latin American countries to let pharmacies dispense cannabis-based medicines. Here is where the law actually stands in 2026.

Is recreational cannabis legal in Chile?

No. Chile has not legalized recreational cannabis, and there is no licensed market where adults can legally buy it. Producing, selling, supplying or transporting cannabis is a criminal offense, and trafficking carries prison terms of five to fifteen years. What Chile has done instead is decriminalize private personal use, which is why consuming and growing small amounts at home is tolerated even though buying it is not.

Is cannabis decriminalized in Chile?

Yes. Chile decriminalized the personal, private use of cannabis in 2005 under Law 20,000, the country’s main drug statute. The law does not punish consuming cannabis in a private setting, and a person caught with a small quantity can avoid criminal charges if they show the drug is for medical treatment or for exclusive personal use in the short term.

Importantly, the law sets no gram-based threshold to separate personal use from trafficking; that judgment is left to prosecutors and judges case by case, which is why enforcement is so uneven. Consuming in public places, or in groups by prior arrangement, remains an offense punishable by fines, mandatory prevention or treatment programs, community service or a suspended driver’s license.

Is medical cannabis legal in Chile?

Yes. Medical cannabis has been legal in Chile since 2015, when the Ministry of Health issued Supreme Decree 84, signed by then-President Michelle Bachelet. The decree let the Public Health Institute (ISP) authorize and control cannabis, its resin and extracts for human pharmaceutical products, and allowed pharmacies to dispense cannabis-based medicines on a retained prescription with stock control.

To access them, a patient needs a prescription from a licensed physician; conditions commonly treated include cancer, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. The medicines are sold in pharmacies, but high prices and limited insurance coverage keep them out of reach for many patients, and much of the market still operates in a legal grey area — researchers have described it as a de facto legalization of medicinal cannabis, with national sales estimated at around US$24 million in 2020.

Can you grow cannabis at home in Chile?

It is allowed for personal use, but the line is blurry. Under Law 20,000, growing cannabis is an offense unless the grower can justify that the plants are for their exclusive, short-term personal use, in which case only the minor penalties for consumption apply. A 2023 amendment went further for patients: a treating doctor’s prescription, stating the diagnosis, treatment and method of use, now formally justifies cultivating cannabis for medical purposes. Any larger or commercial cultivation requires authorization from the Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG).

In practice this leaves home growers in a grey zone. Courts have repeatedly protected genuine personal grows, yet police still raid and detain some cultivators, and patients say they are pursued despite meeting the law’s requirements. The widely cited “six plants per household” figure does not come from current law; it comes from reform bills, including a 2015 measure the lower house of Congress approved by 68 votes to 39 that would have let each home grow up to six plants, but which never cleared the Senate.

Is CBD legal in Chile?

CBD is legal in Chile, but it is tightly regulated rather than sold freely as a wellness product. Cannabis-derived CBD is treated like any other cannabis-based medicine, flowing through the prescription-and-pharmacy system overseen by the ISP, and Chile’s drug statutes contain no standalone definition of CBD, which leaves cannabidiol products in a regulatory limbo. If you want the basics of the compound itself, see our guide to cannabidiol.

Hemp-derived CBD sits in an even greyer area. A number of online shops sell oils, balms and tinctures, but many of these products lack sanitary certification from the Public Health Institute, so their potency, quality and safety are not guaranteed.

Is hemp legal in Chile?

Hemp is legal to grow with authorization, but Chile has no real industrial-hemp sector. The country has one of the longest cannabis histories in the Americas — fiber hemp was introduced in the Quillota Valley as early as 1545 to supply the army and shipping — yet large-scale production never recovered in the modern era. Today any cannabis or hemp planting needs authorization from the Agriculture and Livestock Service, and there is no legal authorization for industrial use; only cultivation for medicinal or personal use is regulated. That leaves the domestic hemp industry small and slow to develop.

How big is Chile’s illicit cannabis market?

Large, and increasingly home-grown. Chile reports some of the highest cannabis-use rates in Latin America, and the prevalence among adolescents has been measured as the highest in the Americas; it is common to see people using cannabis openly on the streets of Santiago. Much of the supply has traditionally been trafficked in from neighbors such as Peru, Paraguay and Colombia.

Domestic cultivation is also on the rise: authorities seized roughly 285,000 cannabis plants in 2020, nearly 50,000 more than the year before, as large commercial plantations sprang up to fill gaps left when pandemic border closures choked off imports. Reliable pricing is hard to pin down in an illegal market; rough, crowd-sourced estimates have put black-market flower at around US$7 a gram, among the higher prices in the region, but such figures should be treated with caution.

Will Chile legalize cannabis?

Possibly, but the politics are pulling in opposite directions. In April 2025, a cross-party group of lawmakers led by Deputy Ana María Gazmuri introduced a bill to regulate adult use, proposing home cultivation of up to six flowering plants, possession of up to 800 grams a year, carrying up to 40 grams in public, and nonprofit growing clubs of up to 500 members, with consumption confined to private spaces.

At the same time, Congress moved the other way. A reform published in May 2026 lets trafficking-level penalties apply even to small quantities of substances the regulations deem capable of causing serious harm, and because cannabis is still classified as a hard drug under a 2007 decree, opponents warn users and patients could be swept up. A group of 37 opposition deputies, again led by Gazmuri, asked the Constitutional Court to strike the change down, arguing it could criminalize personal and medicinal use.

The political backdrop has also shifted. In December 2025, Chileans elected right-wing president José Antonio Kast, who took office in March 2026 on a law-and-order platform focused on crime and migration rather than drug reform. Cannabis remains part of a wider regional conversation that includes neighbors such as Argentina and Ecuador, and Chile has already taken meaningful steps with decriminalization and medical legalization. Whether it builds those into a full adult-use framework now depends on a Congress and a presidency that do not yet agree on the direction.