Malta countries/mt.yaml
Adults 18+ may carry up to 7 g in public and keep up to 50 g of dried cannabis at home under the [2021 legalisation](/history/malta-legalisation-2021/).[@cap628,euda] Between 7 g and 28 g in public is not a crime but goes to a tribunal with a fine of €50–100.[@cap628] Above 28 g, ordinary drug law applies.[@cap628]
Up to four plants per household (not per adult), which must not be visible from outside.[@cap628,euda] The dried harvest kept at home may not exceed 50 g.[@cap628]
Among Europe's mildest for users: conduct inside the limits is unpunished, and small overages or public use are handled by a tribunal with fines rather than courts.[@cap628,mt] Trafficking still carries prison.[@cap628]
The law provides for personal use and for distribution by licensed associations to their own members.[@cap628] There is no explicit right to give cannabis to another adult, and supply outside an association remains trafficking.[@cap628]
Private only. Consuming in public is prohibited and fined €235; consuming in front of a minor is fined €300–500.[@mt,cap628] Associations may not allow consumption on their premises.[@cap628]
Only licensed non-profit associations may grow, for their own members, under ARUC supervision and away from schools and youth centres.[@aruc] For-profit recreational production is not allowed. Medical production is separately licensed.[@aruc]
Licensed associations distribute dried flower and seeds, and may produce and distribute approved solid solventless resin/hash with specific processing authorisation.[@processing2026] Their cultivation/distribution permit alone does not cover processing.[@processing2026] Oils, tinctures, distillates and solvent-based processing are excluded.[@processing2026] A … in supplies count together; individual association stock must be checked.[@processing2026]
Legal since 2018 on prescription from a registered doctor, with an approval card for the patient, dispensed in pharmacies.[@euda] Products are limited and paid out of pocket.[@euda]
People convicted of simple possession before the reform can have the conviction struck from their record.[@cap628] Association membership is recorded, though privacy rules limit access.[@aruc] Driving under the influence remains an offence.[@act2026]
cap628, aruc, act2026
The cannabis authority states that for Maltese drug law cannabis does not include the seeds, while every cannabis plant falls within the definition.[@arucfaq] Adults may grow four plants per household; the authority's guidance read here does not say where cuttings may be obtained. Seeds, being outside the definition, are not subject to the ban on selling cannabis.[@arucfaq]
Non-profit Cannabis Harm Reduction Associations are the only legal source besides home gro … ority listed 24 with an operating permit, spread over towns on Malta and one site on Gozo.[@chras,aruc] An association may have at most 500 members, who must be residents with a Maltese identity or residence card and may belong to only one; tourists cannot join.[@cap628] Members may receive up to 7 g a day and 50 g a month. Nothing may be consumed on the premises, advertising is banned, and since 2025 the premises must stand 250 metres from schools, sports facilities and youth centres.[@cap628,mi25]
A law in force since 10 March 2026 sets a permitted level of 2 microgrammes of THC per litre of blood for ordinary drivers.[@act2026] Drivers of commercial vehicles, buses, coaches and vehicles carrying passengers for a fee … d in a serious accident; a driver who tests positive for THC may be sent for a blood test.[@act2026] A medical cannabis card or prescription must be shown after a positive test but does not exempt the driver from responsibility.[@act2026]
The associations are for residents only. The cannabis authority states that tourists may n … e card issued by the Maltese government; a person may belong to one association at a time.[@chras] With no shops, a visitor has no legal source. Consuming cannabis in public is prohibited and fined €235 under the cannabis act.[@cap628,mt]
The EU drugs agency's statistical bulletin records 73 cannabis-related drug law offences in Malta in 2024, against 48 in 2023.[@euda_dlo] Of the 2024 total, 1 were for use or possession for use. Before the 2021 reform the figure … or offenders, criminal or administrative), so the figure is not comparable across borders.[@euda_dlo]
The EU drugs agency's statistical bulletin records 214 kg of herbal cannabis and 4,316 kg of cannabis resin seized in Malta in 2024, against 154 kg and 1.5 kg in 2023.[@euda_szr] Herbal cannabis was seized on 88 occasions and resin on 20. Plant seizures came to 244 plants. Countries record seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@euda_szr]
Wiktionary — qanneb (Maltese hemp, from Arabic qinnab) 12 unchanged
EUR
upto 7 g · treatment legal · term Personal possession · note Adults 18+ may carry in public, over 7 g · upto 28 g · treatment civil · term Tribunal case · fine min 50 · fine 100 · note Not a crime; tribunal fine €50–100, over 28 g · treatment criminal · term Possession · note Ordinary drug law applies
label Up to four plants per household · treatment legal · term Home growing · note Not visible from outside; home harvest capped at 50 g
Malta was the first EU country to legalise, in December 2021: adults 18+ may carry up to 7 g in public, keep 50 g at home and grow four plants per household.[@cap628,euda] Licensed non-profit associations supply members with flower, seeds and approved solventless resin; oils, tinctures and solvent-based products are excluded.[@processing2026] Public consumption stays prohibited.[@cap628]
cap628, euda, processing2026
standard
No separate hemp regime was found in the retained sources: the 2021 Act governs cannabis through home growing and associations, with no THC threshold, licence, or fibre exemption located for industrial hemp.[@cap628]
cap628
Maltese has its own hemp word, qanneb, from Arabic, familiar through ropes, textiles and birdseed; the 2021 reform literally replaced qanneb indjan with cannabis in the drug law.[@qanneblg,cap628] The island's cannabis culture is the licensed association scene traced in [cannabis-social-clubs](/culture/traditions/cannabis-social-clubs/), whose Maltese associations began handing out cannabis in January 2024.[@chras]
qanneblg, cap628, chras