Kazakhstan: penalty tables, medical and culture sections, two articles

Thanasis Apostolou — Necessary corrections to anachronistic regulations of the Greek Drug Law Wikipedia — Cannabis in Greece 1 unchanged

Article 296 of the Criminal Code covers acquiring, keeping, making or carrying drugs witho … ices, corrective work, up to 160 hours of community service or arrest of up to 40 days; a 'large amount' raises this to 200 indices, 200 hours or 50 days; an 'especially large amount' brings three to seven years in prison.[@cc296] The amounts are set in a government table, which the sources read did not reproduce, so the table below uses the code's bands rather than gram lines.[@cc296] A person who voluntarily hands over drugs acquired for personal use, or seeks medical help, is released from criminal liability.[@cc296]

cc296, zakon

Article 300 of the Criminal Code punishes sowing or growing cannabis and other prohibited … o 600 hours of community service, or restriction of liberty or prison for up to two years.[@cc300] A large amount, a group or a repeat offence brings three to eight years; an especially large amount or a criminal group seven to twelve.[@cc300] Since 2025, licensed companies may grow registered hemp varieties containing no more than 0.3% THC; individuals may not.[@tn25,l279]

Fines or short arrest for the smallest amounts, years in prison above them. The Interior Ministry has itself proposed not jailing people for simple possession.[@nt] The state also counts drug crime as a large share of its caseload: 1,607 drug crimes in the Karasora-2024 operation, and more than 26 tonnes of drugs seized in the first nine months of 2025.[@inbiz24,tca25]

nt, inbiz24, tca25

Article 297 of the Criminal Code punishes acquiring, storing or transporting drugs for sal … nd fifteen to twenty for a criminal group, an official, or sale in a school or to a minor.[@cc297]

Using drugs for non-medical purposes in a public place is an offence under the first part … indices, corrective work, up to 80 hours of community service or arrest of up to 20 days.[@cc296] A person who voluntarily seeks medical help is released from liability.[@cc296] Officials have proposed softening the treatment of users.[@nt]

cc296, zakon, nt

NoThere is no legal source of cannabis for adults or patients.[@zakon] Licensed cultivation covers scientific study and industrial hemp, not a retail or patient supply.[@current279] A proposal to move simple possession out of criminal law has not been enacted.[@zakon]

zakon, current279

medicalhemp

Reliable national information about legally available cannabis products was not established by the retained sources.

The retainedNo approved cannabis medicine or patient-access programme was found in the sources do not establish whetherread.[@current279] The narcotics law allows a medicalnarrow route for producing narcotic medicines under Article 18, but licensed cannabis programme operatescultivation is described as scientific study and industrial hemp, not medicine for patients.[@current279] Medical status stays none.

current279

UnauthorisedUnauthorized possession in the ordinary and large bands is a lesser criminal offence, with fines, work … posal to move ordinary personal possession out of criminal law remains a proposal.[@zakon]

The 1998 narcotics law lists the cannabis plant as any plant of the genus containing THC, "with the exception of seeds and roots, if they are not accompanied by the plant itself or other parts of plant".[@l279] Sowing and growing hemp counts as cultivating a narcotic plant and is a controlled activity.[@cc300] Since 2025 licensed companies may grow listed hemp varieties with up to 0.3% THC, and only from original or elite registered seed; individuals may not.[@tn25,l279]

tn25, l279, cc300

The market is supplied from inside the country, from wild and planted cannabis in the south.[@mvd24] Every summer the interior ministry runs an operation called Karasora against growing, harvesting and transit, with helicopter and drone reconnaissance over the Almaty, Zhetysu, Turkistan, Kyzylorda and Ulytau regions.[@mvd24] In 2024 it removed more than 15 tonnes of drugs in 70 days and recorded 450 drug crimes, 102 of them for cultivation; flights alone found over 9,000 cannabis plants.[@mvd24] In the first nine months of 2025 police seized more than 26 tonnes of drugs, 35% more than a year earlier, including over nine tonnes of marijuana and more than 600 kg of hashish.[@tca25]

There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. The Criminal Code's penalties run from f … ght years in prison, with confiscation of property, for holding or carrying them for sale.[@cc296,cc297] Advertising or promoting drugs is a separate crime under Article 299-1, added in 2019: up to three years in prison, or three to six when done online, through the media or in a place where many people gather.[@cc2991]

The Code of Administrative Offences punishes driving '"in a state of alcoholic, narcotic or toxic intoxication'" with 15 days of administrative arrest and loss of the licence for seven years; where harm or damage results, 20 days.[@koap608] A repeat within a year brings 20 days and eight years.[@koap608] The article names a state of intoxication, not a measured level, and the Constitutional Court upheld it in October 2023.[@koap608]

No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@cc300,cc297]

In the interior ministry's operation Karasora-2024, between 1 June and 31 October 2024, police recorded 1,607 drug crimes: 799 of sale, 245 of cultivation and 194 of possession.[@inbiz24] They seized 21.5 tonnes of drugs, among them about 4.5 tonnes of marijuana and more than 16 tonnes of cannabis plants, and destroyed over 380 hectares of wild hemp in the Shu district of Zhambyl region.[@inbiz24] The ministry gave no total for arrests.[@inbiz24]

KZT

label Small amount, Article 296(2) · treatment criminal · term Acquisition, keeping or carrying without intent to sell · prison 40 days · note Fine up to 160 monthly calculation indices, corrective work or up to 160 hours of community service, label Large amount, Article 296(3) · treatment criminal · term Acquisition, keeping or carrying without intent to sell · prison 50 days · note Fine up to 200 monthly calculation indices, corrective work or up to 200 hours of community service, label Especially large amount, Article 296(4) · treatment criminal · term Acquisition, keeping or carrying without intent to sell · prison min 3 years · prison 7 years

KZT

label Ordinary cultivation, Article 300(1) · treatment criminal · term Sowing or growing · prison 2 years · note Fine up to 2,000 monthly calculation indices, corrective work, up to 600 hours of community service or restriction of liberty, label Group, repeat or large amount, Article 300(2) · treatment criminal · term Sowing or growing · prison min 3 years · prison 8 years, label Criminal group or especially large amount, Article 300(3) · treatment criminal · term Sowing or growing · prison min 7 years · prison 12 years · note Property may be confiscated

label Acquisition, keeping or transport for sale, or sale · treatment criminal · term Article 297(1) · prison min 5 years · prison 8 years · note Property confiscated, label Large amount · treatment criminal · term Article 297(2) · prison min 6 years · prison 10 years · note Property confiscated, label Group, repeat, especially large amount or public place · treatment criminal · term Article 297(3) · prison min 7 years · prison 12 years · note Property confiscated, label Criminal group, official, school or minor · treatment criminal · term Article 297(4) · prison min 15 years · prison 20 years · note Property confiscated

KZT

label Public non-medical use, Article 296(1) · treatment criminal · term Use · prison 20 days · note Fine up to 80 monthly calculation indices, corrective work or up to 80 hours of community service

Adults have no legal way to buy cannabis. Possession without intent to sell is criminal even in the smallest band, with a fine or up to 40 days' arrest; an especially large amount brings three to seven years.[@cc296] Public use is a separate crime with a fine, community service or up to 20 days' arrest.[@cc296] The market is supplied from wild and planted cannabis in the south, and police run an annual eradication and enforcement operation in the Chu valley.[@mvd24] No price or purity data were found.

cc296, mvd24

Wild cannabis grows across the Chu valley in the south, known in Russian as [anasha](/culture/language/anasha/) or dichka. The Soviet authorities declared it a narcotic in 1969 and tried to burn and spray the fields; the plants grew back.[@nat09] In 2009 the interior ministry estimated that the valley could yield 140,000 tonnes of marijuana and 5,000 to 6,000 tonnes of hashish a year.[@nat09] A 2014 proposal to lease the fields to international pharmaceutical companies came to nothing.[@fp14]

nat09, fp14