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

Peru allows regulated medical cannabis and exempts limited possession for personal and immediate consumption from punishment. It has not established a legal recreational retail market. Industrial hemp follows a separate legislative path, and publication of a hemp law should not be confused with permission to begin growing or selling products.

Is Recreational Cannabis Legal in Peru?

Peru has no licensed adult-use cannabis shops. The personal-possession exception does not authorize commercial supply, unlicensed cultivation, or cross-border transport. These activities must be assessed under their own criminal and regulatory rules.

That distinction matters when comparing Peru with neighboring Argentina or Colombia. A protection for a consumer does not necessarily create a lawful supplier or allow the consumer to grow plants.

What Does the Personal-Possession Exception Cover?

Article 299 of the Penal Code, as set out in Legislative Decree 1592, makes possession for a person’s own immediate consumption nonpunishable when it does not exceed 8 grams of marijuana or 2 grams of its derivatives. Both the purpose and the quantity matter: being below a weight threshold does not protect a sale or another unlawful supply activity.

The provision excludes possession of two or more types of controlled drugs from that general exception. Exceeding a threshold or falling outside the exception can expose someone to investigation; it is not, by itself, a complete finding of criminal guilt. The facts and the elements of the alleged offense still matter.

The same article separately protects the quantity necessary for treatment of a properly registered medical patient, including qualifying care or guardianship arrangements, under the medical rules. A patient’s documented treatment supply should therefore not be assessed as though the recreational 8-gram rule were the only exception.

What Penalties Can Apply?

There is no single sentence covering every cannabis offense. Article 296 sets an 8-to-15-year range for promoting or facilitating illegal consumption through manufacture or trafficking, and a separate 6-to-12-year range for possession for illegal uses. Fines and disqualification can also apply. Article 298 provides a reduced 3-to-7-year range for specified smaller-scale offenses, subject to its conditions and aggravated cases.

The 100-gram marijuana figure in Article 298 is an upper quantity for that smaller-scale provision; the corresponding figure for derivatives is 10 grams. It is not a rule that possession becomes automatically proven trafficking at 100 grams. Nor does possession below that amount authorize dealing.

For cultivation, Article 296-A distinguishes the general 8-to-15-year range from a 2-to-6-year range where the number of plants does not exceed 100. Seed offenses also have separate provisions. The statutory cultivation thresholds describe criminal penalties, not a permitted home-growing allowance. Medical licensing exceptions must be considered separately.

How Does Medical Cannabis Access Work?

Law 30681 established Peru’s medical and therapeutic cannabis framework in 2017. Law 31312 later added patient-association production. Supreme Decree 004-2023-SA brings these pathways into a common regulatory system covering licensing, prescriptions, patient registration, production, imports, and dispensing.

A patient needs a medical prescription and registration in RENPUC, Peru’s national registry of medical cannabis users. Registration applies to medical CBD products as well as products containing higher concentrations of THC. Patients or their treating doctors can initiate the online declaration; the regulation also describes completion of registration through dispensing or delivery by an authorized association.

• THC at or above 1%: a special prescription is required. Its validity is up to 30 calendar days from issue.
• THC below 1%, or CBD alone: a regular medical prescription is required.
• Dispensing: the pharmacy or other eligible pharmaceutical establishment must hold the relevant license, check RENPUC, and retain the prescription as required.

Medical legality does not establish that every cannabis product is effective for every condition. Treatment selection, dosing, and follow-up belong with the treating clinician. A commercial product’s registration and formulation also matter; a CBD label is not a substitute for those checks.

Where Can Patients Obtain Products?

DIGEMID maintains an official medical cannabis information hub with licensed-establishment and product information. Use the current lists to check a supplier, then confirm the prescribed formulation and stock directly with the establishment. A license is not proof that every listed business has a particular product available.

The regulation provides routes for registered pharmaceutical, herbal, and natural health products derived from cannabis. Individually compounded preparations have a different product-registration treatment, but that does not exempt the establishment or dispensing process from oversight. Historical pharmacy counts and patient estimates cannot reliably show today’s availability.

Can Patients or Associations Grow Cannabis?

RENPUC registration alone is not a personal cultivation license. The medical rules provide licensed production pathways for eligible public entities and pharmaceutical laboratories, and a separate artisanal production pathway involving cultivation by associations of at least two registered patients.

An association must meet its own licensing and operating requirements. Its production serves its registered members’ medical treatment; forming a group or describing a crop as medicinal does not automatically authorize cultivation or recreational sales. Individual recreational home growing is not created by the personal-possession exception.

Can Medical Cannabis Be Imported?

There is an exceptional personal medical-import procedure. Article 13 of Supreme Decree 004-2023-SA allows a RENPUC-registered patient, or a qualifying third party acting for a patient, to import cannabis derivatives for treatment under an approved prescription and the applicable DIGEMID and customs controls. The prescription must support no more than six months of treatment.

This is a documented authorization process, not a general allowance to bring cannabis through an airport. Commercial importers use a separate licensing route. Patients should resolve approval and documentation with DIGEMID and SUNAT before arranging a shipment or travel with a product.

Is Industrial Hemp Legal?

Law 32195, published in December 2024, establishes an industrial hemp framework for cannabis below 1% THC by dry weight, including the specified isomers, salts, and acid forms. It envisages authorized production and industrial uses such as textiles, construction materials, foods, and cosmetics. It excludes smoking or combustion uses.

The law’s fifth final provision delays its entry into force until the day after publication of its implementing regulation. MIDAGRI published a draft regulation in August 2025 for consultation. That consultation is not itself the final regulation or a production authorization. Confirm publication of the final implementing decree before planning production.

Businesses should confirm the operative regulation and approvals with MIDAGRI and the relevant sector authority before investing or starting production. The law also distinguishes production authorizations from finished-product retail requirements; lawful sourcing and applicable product standards remain relevant. Its text does not make every low-THC item freely marketable.

Is CBD Legal, and What Should Visitors Know?

Medical CBD can be supplied through the prescription and licensed-dispensing system described above. A medical product containing CBD alone still requires a prescription and RENPUC checks. Proposed industrial uses do not turn an unapproved CBD food, cosmetic, or supplement into an authorized product. See our CBD guide for an explanation of the compound.

Foreign nationality is not a blanket exclusion from the medical framework: the prescription rules expressly accommodate a foreign patient’s passport or foreign-resident identification. Visitors still need to satisfy the Peruvian prescription, registration, and dispensing requirements. A foreign medical cannabis card alone does not replace them.

Plan medical access before traveling, including any separate import approval. The domestic possession exception is not an international travel exemption, a guarantee against investigation, or permission to consume cannabis wherever a visitor chooses.