Cambodia countries/kh.yaml
Cannabis is controlled under the 2012 drug law. Unlawful possession carries prison terms; the law retains limited discretion for customary consumption and cultivation and provides both voluntary and compulsory treatment procedures.
label Any amount · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 2 years · prison 5 ye … e 100000000 · note Twenty to thirty years or life; English text repeats the 20–60 kg band · life possible, label Resin 400 g to under 800 g, or oil 200 ml to under 400 ml · treatment criminal · t … prison 30 years · fine min 40000000 · fine 100000000 · note Twenty to thirty years or life
Unlawful cultivation of narcotic plants in Tables I and II carries six months to two years in prison; growing for distribution, manufacture or trade carries two to five years.[@law] Article 38 also lets prosecutors exonerate, and courts acquit or reprimand, limited personal growing in a non-addictive ancestral practice.[@law] Drug-related activity otherwise requires permission or a licence from the competent authorities.[@law]
Unlawful possession has a basic two-to-five-year prison penalty, and article 28 bars subst … 2 kg to 525 kg while total drug seizures fell from 14.9 to 5.9 tonnes.[@akp26] In January–JulySeptember 2026 they recorded 1620,498906 suspects and 105389 kg of dried cannabis.[@cambodianess26] Amnesty International documents mass arrests and d … The figures cover all drugs and do not establish a cannabis-only sentencing rate.[@akp26]
label Sale or trafficking, any amount · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · prison min … rison 30 years · fine min 40000000 · fine 100000000 · note Twenty to thirty years or life · life possible, label Arranging another person's consumption · treatment criminal · term Arranging use · … term Facilitation · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · fine min 2000000 · fine 10000000
Research is one ofArticle 12 lets the four permitted purposesMinister of Health authorise individuals in a state organisation to cultivate, make, buy, use or store drugs for licensed cultivationmedical, manufacturescientific or police-science research, with a logbook and supply of controlled drugs; noannual report.[@law] No actual cannabis research programme was verified beyond the licensingthat route.[@law]
The 2012 law includes cannabis among narcotic plants and makes unauthorised cultivation an offence.[@law] Table I lists cannabis, resin and oil but not seed; sowing is cultivation, so seeds remain a grey area and a cutting is a plant.[@law] Licensed activity is limited to research, clinical, scientific or industrial purposes.[@law] No, and no public seed or cutting retail permission was verified in the reviewed provisions.[@law]
No cannabis clubs are known. The law criminalises unauthorised cultivation and transfer of controlled drugs between people.[@law] Its licensing rules limit permission to research, clinical, scientific or industrial purposesand article 44 makes providing a place for drug use an offence carrying one to five years and 2–10 million riel.[@law]
Unlawful possession of cannabis falls under the drug law'’s basic two-to-five-year prison penalty.[@law] The reviewed law gives visitors no separate recreational possession or supply permission, and foreigners are prosecuted: two Britons were sentenced to 14 and 10 years in February 2026, and five Britons were charged over 97 kg at Techo airport in September.[@khmertimes26c] Courts can order deportation after sentence.[@law]
law, khmertimes26c
Police counted 27,884 drug suspects in 2025, up from 27,071 in 2024, and 1620,498906 in January–JulySeptember 2026, 10% more than a year earlier; 889 of the 2026January–July suspects were foreigners.[@akp26,cambodianess26,xinhua26] Dried cannabis seizures rose from 142 kg in 2024 to 525 kg in 2025, then 105389 kg in January–JulySeptember 2026.[@akp26,cambodianess26xinhua26] The figures cover all drugs; no cannabis-only arrest count is published.[@akp26]
akp26, cambodianess26, xinhua26
UNODC records 142 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 45.2 kg in 2023.[@unodc_szr] The Anti-Drug Department reported 525 kg in 2025 and 105389 kg in January–September 2026; the 2026 figures are cumulative — 9.4 kg by May, 12.7 kg by June, 105 kg by July, 282 kg by August and 389 kg by September.[@akp26,xinhua26] A 65 kg condo seizure in June 2026 was larger than the entire January–June official total, while plantsso the series is not a complete count of all cannabis seizures.[@khmertimes26b] Plants destroyed fell from 17,785 in 2024 to 12,212 in 2025.[@akp26] A January–June 2026 report gave only 12.7 kg of dried cannabis, conflicting with the 105 kg figure for January–July; the two may count different categories.[@cambodianess26] The figures are not directly comparable.[@unodc_szr,akp26]
unodc_szr, akp26, cambodianess26xinhua26, khmertimes26b
Xinhua — Cambodia reports 20,906 drug suspects and 389 kg of cannabis in nine months (1 October 2026) Khmer Times — British national arrested with 65 kg of marijuana in Phnom Penh condo (June 2026) Khmer Times — Five Britons charged over Techo airport drug smuggling (September 2026) 12 unchanged