Venezuela countries/ve.yaml
Article 131 puts consumers holding an individually assessed personal dose under the rehabi … e to eighteen years up to 5,000 g, and a general fifteen-to-twenty-five-year range.[@lod] The one-to-two-year possession term dates to a [2005 reform](/history/venezuela-possession-penalties-2005/) that cut it from four to six years; the twenty-gram cannabis ceiling stayed.[@lod]
Article 151 punishes unlawful sowing, growing and related dealings in controlled plants, s … years. Directing or financing these operations carries twenty-five to thirty years.[@lod] An older range of four to eight years for holding and growing dated to a [1964 code amendment](/history/venezuela-cannabis-prison-code-1964/).[@lod]
The personal-use procedure can lead to compulsory rehabilitation, which may involve living … nditions, including an actual sentence of no more than five years, still apply.[@court17] The 2014 binding rule opening sentencing alternatives for minor drug cases, and the 2017 removal of the suspension bar, are traced in the [2014 ruling](/history/venezuela-small-drug-cases-suspended-sentences-2014/) and the [2017 judgment](/history/venezuela-drug-suspension-bar-struck-2017/).[@court17]
Reliable national information about lawful cannabisNo licensed production operates: the 2010 law criminalises sowing, growing and supply, and no licensing regime was not established byin the retained sources read.[@lod]
lod
Reliable national information about legally available cannabis products was not established by the retained sources.
The retained sources do not establish whether aNo medical cannabis programme operates: the law provides treatment and rehabilitation for consumers, not patient supply, and unauthorised supply and growing remain criminal.[@lod]
lod
Article 151 of the 2010 Organic Drug Law is headed "illicit trafficking of seeds, resins a … prison. For no more than 300 grams of seed or ten plants the penalty is six to ten years.[@lod]
The law provides no recreational supply route or visitor exemption.[@lod] Personal-use cases depend on a judge's assessment and forensic evidence; article 153 separately permits one to two years in prison for criminal possession even within its 20 g cannabis band.[@lod] Article 178 provides for expulsion of foreign offenders after serving a criminal sentence.[@lod]
Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office record 13,115 kg of herbal canna … nd countries count seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@unodc_szr] In September 2022 the armed forces announced their largest marijuana bust in a decade: a boat intercepted off the Caribbean coast with 2.8 metric tons of marijuana and 8 kg of cocaine.[@ap22]
unodc_szr, ap22
Texto & Contexto Enfermagem — Perception of risk and behaviors associated with driving under the effects of alcohol and marijuana on university students of Venezuela (2019) AP via LatestLY — Venezuela: Armed forces make largest pot bust in a decade (6 Sep 2022) The African Roots of Marijuana 3 unchanged
label Personal dose (article 131) · treatment criminal · term Personal use · note Individually assessed dose; court-ordered rehabilitation, possibly residential; no prison tariff, label Criminal possession in band (article 153) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 1 year · prison 2 years · note Up to 20 g marijuana (5 g modified); separate from personal use
label Up to ten plants, 300 g seed or resin (article 151) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison min 6 years · prison 10 years, label Unlawful sowing, growing and related dealings (article 151) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison min 12 years · prison 18 years, label Directing or financing (article 151) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison min 25 years · prison 30 years
Recreational cannabis is fully prohibited. Consumers holding an individually assessed personal dose go through the court-ordered rehabilitation procedure, but possession outside lawful activities and personal use is separately criminal — one to two years even within the 20 g band — and trafficking draws eight to twenty-five years by quantity.[@lod]
lod
none
No hemp exception operates: seeds, resins and plants fall under the article 151 trafficking offence, with six to ten years for ten plants or 300 g of seed.[@lod]
lod
impairment
Article 139 of the drug law and article 169 of the traffic law sanction driving under the influence of alcohol or other substances, but a study of Venezuelan university students found very few mechanisms for monitoring or penalising such drivers, and a correspondingly low expectation of being caught.[@scielo]
scielo
The September 2022 boat interception — 2.8 tons of marijuana, the decade's largest bust — shows enforcement at sea as well as on land.[@ap22] Government figures reported to the UN record 13,115 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 8,416 kg in 2023.[@unodc_szr]
ap22, unodc_szr
Indian labourers carried ganja culture to Venezuela's coast: by 1895 some immigrants had become specialised producers, growing the plant in Venezuela and smuggling it back to Trinidad to dodge customs — likely sowing seed from plants already growing in the Americas.[@duvall19] The first printed record of cannabis in Venezuela is an 1895 travel account, with a British Guiana inquiry following in 1897.[@duvall19] The file's first-restriction estimate centres on [1925](/history/ve-first-restriction-estimate/).[@duvall19]
duvall19
no
No patient or adult-use purchase route verified