Vanuatu countries/vu.yaml
The drug law lists cannabis, resin and resin-based preparations, and excludes separated mature stalks and their fibre from its cannabis definition.[@law] The industry Act defines hemp at no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis.[@hemp]
law, hemp
Medical cannabis under the industry licensing Act is grown for export — the drug law lists cannabis, resin and resin-based preparations, while separated mature stalks and fibre sit outside its cannabis definition, and the industry Act defines hemp at no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC.[@law,hemp] The drug law separately provides medical or scientific import permits and exemptions … ffirmed the export industry’s prohibition on local sales in January 2026.[@clarification] The 2023 licensing rules are traced in the [2023 rules](/history/vanuatu-export-cannabis-rules-signed-2023/).
Road Traffic (Control) Act section 16 prohibits driving on a road when a drug or alcohol makes proper vehicle control impossible, and permits arrest without a warrant.[@traffic2020] The official 2020 consolidation's section 53(3) sets up to VT100,000 or one year's imprisonment or both for that offence, rather than the lower general penalty for other contraventions.[@traffic2020] Under section 55 the court may also disqualify the driver for up to five years and endorse the licence; that is a discretionary maximum, not an automatic five-year ban.[@traffic2020] Section 54(2) allows detention of a vehicle involved in an offence seriously jeopardising road-user safety.[@traffic2020] The Supreme Court distinguishes court punishment from separate public- transport impoundment and permit processes; the vehicle owner must not simply be treated as the offending driver.[@trafficjudgment] No numeric THC allowance, operational roadside drug-screening protocol or medical-use defence was established in these reviewed sources.[@traffic2020]
Vanuatu regulates cultivation of cannabis and hemp 10 unchanged
VUV
label General maximum (Dangerous Drugs Act) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison 20 years · fine 100000000 · note VT100 million or twenty years or both; courts grade by purpose and scale, label Small personal possession (court guidance) · treatment criminal · term Possession · note Fine or community sentence in small personal cases
VUV
label General maximum (Dangerous Drugs Act) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison 20 years · fine 100000000 · note VT100 million or twenty years or both, label Small personal grow (court guidance) · treatment criminal · term Personal use · note Fines and community measures usual; short custody possible in serious cases
Recreational cannabis is fully prohibited: possession, supply and unlicensed growing are crimes with a twenty-year, VT100 million maximum, though courts apply a lesser personal-use category in small cases.[@law,aru] There is no personal-use allowance in the statute, only sentencing mitigation.
law, aru
strict
Hemp at no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC may be grown only under the industry licensing Act, whose rules were signed in February 2023 for licensed importation, cultivation, processing and export — with standards for each stage and licences taking effect after gazette publication.[@hemp,pina23] Licensed production is export-oriented; officials reaffirmed in January 2026 that local sales were prohibited.[@clarification]
hemp, pina23, clarification
No seizure statistics or trade-scale account was verified in the sources read; the profile rests on court records of personal and commercial grows rather than market measurement.[@lovis,kaiding]
lovis, kaiding
A first offender with five plants received a suspended sentence in 2024 after three months and two days in custody before bail, and courts grade personal against commercial operations.[@kaiding,lovis]
kaiding, lovis