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

Cannabis occupies a middle ground in Colombia. Medical and scientific use has been legal and regulated since 2016, and the courts decriminalized personal possession and small-scale home cultivation years before that. Selling cannabis for recreational use is still a crime, but a bill to build a regulated adult-use market has now cleared the first of the four debates it needs in Congress, the furthest a regulation effort has advanced since a 2023 attempt collapsed. Colombia’s particular blend of permissive and prohibitionist rules sets it apart from much of the map of where marijuana is legal around the world.

Is Weed Legal in Colombia?

Colombia treats cannabis in three separate categories, and knowing which one an activity falls into is the key to the law. Medical and scientific cannabis is legal under a national licensing system. Personal possession of up to 20 grams and home cultivation of up to 20 plants are decriminalized, so consumers are not prosecuted for personal use. Commercial sale for recreational purposes remains illegal and can be prosecuted. A regulated adult-use market is not yet legal, though a bill to create one is moving through Congress.

Is Cannabis Decriminalized in Colombia?

Yes. Personal possession and consumption have been decriminalized for three decades. The foundation is a landmark 1994 Constitutional Court ruling, which struck down the penalties in Colombia’s drug statute and held that punishing someone for carrying a personal dose violated the constitutional right to the free development of one’s personality. That protected a personal dose of up to 20 grams of cannabis. Two decades later, a 2015 Supreme Court decision extended the same reasoning to cultivation, finding that keeping up to 20 plants for personal use is not a crime.

Decriminalization is narrow. It protects personal possession and consumption, not buying or selling. Public consumption is restricted rather than freely permitted: national policy leaves it to each municipality to limit use in public spaces, and consuming near schools is generally off-limits. The arrangement resembles cannabis law in Spain, where personal use is tolerated but commercial sale stays illegal.

Is Recreational Cannabis Legal in Colombia?

No. Recreational cannabis remains illegal. Holding amounts beyond the personal dose, or any sign of intent to sell, can bring drug-trafficking charges and prison time, and the commercial cultivation, sale, or export of recreational cannabis is prohibited.

Colombia came close to changing that and fell short. Because the prohibition on drug use sits in the constitution, through a 2009 amendment that banned the personal use of narcotics except by medical prescription, legalizing an adult-use market that way requires passing eight separate debates, four in the House and four in the Senate, across two consecutive years. A reform led by Liberal Party representative Juan Carlos Losada cleared debate after debate through 2022 and into 2023 and reached that final round. On June 20, 2023, the Senate rejected it, with 47 votes in favor and 43 against, short of the 54 needed for a constitutional change. Supporters refiled the proposal, but the later attempt stalled again.

Colombia’s 2026 Adult-Use Bill

The current effort takes a different route. Rather than amending the constitution, Representative Alejandro Ocampo of the governing Pacto Histórico filed an ordinary bill, Proyecto de Ley 023 de 2025, which needs four debates instead of eight. On May 12, 2026, the House’s First Committee approved it unanimously in the first of those debates, the furthest a stand-alone regulation bill has moved since the 2023 defeat.

As approved in committee, the bill would let adults over 18 buy up to 20 grams of flower a day from licensed outlets that check identification, apply a 20 percent tax on sales, and keep home cultivation of up to 20 plants. Non-profit cannabis clubs could grow up to 200 plants for their registered members. The text puts social repair at the center: at least 50 percent of the cannabis flower sold legally would have to come from ethnic and peasant growers’ associations, and 70 percent of cultivation licenses would be reserved for those communities. It restricts advertising, carves cannabis activities done under the new rules out of the criminal code’s drug offenses, and would let people convicted only of cannabis-related crimes seek release and have their records cleared.

This is the ninth such initiative since 2020, and every previous one was shelved. The bill still has to clear the full House and then the Senate, and Colombia’s crowded legislative calendar could push the remaining debates into the session that begins on July 20, 2026. Across Latin America the pace varies widely; countries such as Paraguay have taken their own, more limited paths, which is part of why each Colombian vote draws so much attention. The committee approval is a new start, not a finished law.

Medical Cannabis in Colombia

Medical and scientific cannabis has been legal since 2016, though the framework was built in stages. Colombia’s drug statute, Law 30 of 1986, defined a 20-gram personal dose while keeping possession a punishable offense; it did not legalize medical cannabis. That came decades later. President Juan Manuel Santos’s government issued Decree 2467 in 2015 as the first dedicated medical regulation and granted the first transformation licenses to companies such as Pharmacielo and a handful of local firms. Congress followed with Law 1787 of 2016, which created a framework for safe and informed access to cannabis and its derivatives for medical and scientific purposes, and Decree 613 of 2017 put that law into practice, setting out license categories and drawing the line between psychoactive and non-psychoactive cannabis.

The rules widened in 2021. Decree 811 of 2021, signed by President Iván Duque on July 23, 2021, replaced the earlier regulation, lifted the long-standing ban on exporting dried cannabis flower, and let cultivation and manufacturing licenses run for ten years rather than five. It also opened additional industrial and consumer uses for non-psychoactive cannabis.

Access runs primarily through pharmaceutical products dispensed on a doctor’s prescription, and patients who prefer raw plant material can grow their own. In practice the program has been slow to mature: prescribing doctors and specialized clinics remain limited, and many of the companies that rushed into the 2018 and 2019 “green gold” investment boom later struggled or shut down. Even so, Colombia’s favorable climate and low production costs keep it among the notable exporters of medical cannabis, and companies such as Clever Leaves built large cultivation operations there to supply international markets.

What Did Decree 1138 of 2025 Change?

The most important recent change is Decree 1138 of 2025, signed by President Gustavo Petro on October 27, 2025. For the first time it recognizes the cannabis flower itself as a finished medical product, so patients with a prescription can access treatments made directly from the flower rather than only from manufactured derivatives such as oils, extracts, or capsules. Authorized pharmacies and drugstores can dispense it, and the decree lets them prepare compounded (“magistral”) formulations from cannabis flower grown in Colombia.

The decree also lets non-commercial research licenses run for up to 24 months, and longer when a research project justifies it, giving universities and laboratories more time to study the plant. To support smaller producers, it reserves the domestic medical-flower market for small and medium growers and small national companies during a two-year transition, orders a simplified licensing process, and gives the relevant ministries five months to issue the technical rules that put the change into operation. Cannabis preparations for veterinary use are covered as well.

Can You Grow Weed at Home in Colombia?

Yes, within limits. Colombian law lets individuals grow up to 20 cannabis plants for personal consumption. The plants and their harvest must stay personal: selling, sharing for payment, or otherwise commercializing the cannabis is not allowed and can lead to prosecution. Home growing also sits outside the medical licensing and quota system, precisely because nothing may be handed to a third party.

Is Hemp and Industrial Cannabis Legal in Colombia?

Yes. Industrial, non-psychoactive cannabis is legal to cultivate and process. Rather than separating “hemp” from “marijuana” the way some countries do, Colombia classifies the plant as psychoactive or non-psychoactive using a 1 percent THC threshold by dry weight. Non-psychoactive cannabis, or hemp, is grown for fiber, textiles, food, and CBD extraction, and the 2021 reform opened the door to additional industrial and consumer applications, including foods and beverages that contain less than 1 percent THC.

Is CBD Legal in Colombia?

Yes. CBD is legal as an active ingredient in cosmetics, dietary supplements, and pharmaceutical products, provided it comes from legally cultivated non-psychoactive cannabis and meets the relevant rules. THC, by contrast, is permitted mainly as an active ingredient in pharmaceutical products. That split is what lets a cosmetics or wellness company use CBD while keeping THC inside the medical system.

Will Colombia Legalize Recreational Cannabis?

It is uncertain, but the question is more alive than it has been in years. President Petro’s government openly favors ending cannabis prohibition and frames regulation as a way to weaken criminal markets, and it has expanded what it can through executive decrees on the medical side, including the 2025 decision to allow medical cannabis flower. The legislative path is harder: conservative blocs in Congress have defeated every adult-use reform so far, and the 2026 bill faces the same headwinds even after its strong committee start. South Africa shows a different route, where a constitutional court ruling rather than the legislature decriminalized personal use and cultivation. Readers tracking the wider region can also compare Colombia’s trajectory with neighboring Ecuador. For now, the personal-use protections won in Colombia’s courts remain in place, while a legal recreational market is still not on the books.