Papua New Guinea countries/pg.yaml
The Controlled Substance Act 2021 lists cannabis, resin and oil in Schedule I. Its Schedul … minal laws conflict; how that affects a particular charge needs legal assessment.[@csa21] The 2022 regime is traced in the [Controlled Substance Act entry](/history/papua-new-guinea-controlled-substance-act-2022/).
Facilitating another person's use, whether free or for consideration, carries up to 12 months or K50,000.[@controlled] Selling or distributing for financial or material benefit is trafficking and is punished under the quantity-based Schedule VII tiers.[@csa21]
controlled, csa21
The Act does not set out a separate simple own-use offence, but consuming cannabis ordinarily requires illegal possession.[@controlled] Possessing and selling consumption implements, facilitating another person's use and inciting use are separate offences.[@controlled]
None. Schedule I cannabis has no adult-use or patient-access channel.[@controlled]
None. The 2023–2027 development plan calls for an industrial-hemp policy framework, but that policy intention did not legalise cultivation.[@development_plan] A 2024 National Research Institute study said Papua New Guinea was not yet ready to legalise hemp production.[@hemp_study]
controlled, development_plan, hemp_study
Cannabis flower, resin, oil and Cannabis sativa plants are all in Schedule I. Cannabis fibre is excluded from the Act's definition of cannabis, but the plant needed to produce it remains prohibited; there is no general CBD or low-THC exemption.
controlled
No medical-cannabis programme. Schedule I is described as having no medical value, and the Act's prescribed-medication defence applies only to Schedules II–IV.[@controlled] Cannabis flower, resin, oil and plants are all in Schedule I; fibre is excluded from the definition but the plant needed to produce it remains prohibited, with no general CBD or low-THC exemption.[@controlled]
A conviction produces a criminal record and may bring a fine, imprisonment or both. Courts sometimes make a long default prison term the alternative to a fine, as in the 2026 order of K30,000 or 20 years for 4.7 kg.[@police]
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@controlled]
The Controlled Substance Act 2021 defines cannabis as a cannabis plant, living or dead, in … plants, seedlings, cuttings and saplings together: five or more is an indictable offence.[@csa21]
There is no legal recreational supply.[@csa21] Cannabis possession can lead to prison under either reported charging route: the Controlle … nt; do not treat its lower tiers as exhaustive punishment limits.[@csa21,dda2021,dda_case]
Road Traffic Act section 42 criminalises driving on a public street under the influence of alcohol or a drug, including occupying the driving seat and trying to put the vehicle in motion.[@traffic2014] A first offence carries up to K5,000 or six months' imprisonment or both; repetition raises these maxima to K10,000 and three years.[@traffic2014] If that driving causes bodily or fatal injury to another person, section 42(2) provides up to K60,000 or ten years or both.[@traffic2014] Section 44 requires disqualification of at least six months for the ordinary offence and twelve months for the injury offence.[@traffic2014] Police must facilitate a requested medical examination after arrest.[@traffic2014] Section 43 permits officers, on reasonable grounds, to forbid driving, take keys and immobilise or remove a vehicle for the necessary period.[@traffic2014] The 2017 Road User Rules separately describe impaired mental or motor skills and an officer-administered impairment test; their numerical alcohol rules are not THC limits.[@trafficrules] No quantified THC allowance or general prescribed-cannabis defence was verified.[@traffic2014,trafficrules]
PGK
label 10 g or less (Controlled Substance Act, Schedule VII) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison 2 years · fine 15000, label Above 10 g but below 2 kg (Schedule VII) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison 15 years · fine 25000, label Above 2 kg (Schedule VII) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 16 years · fine 2000000 · note Sixteen years to life; K26,000 to K2 million, label Knowing unauthorised possession or conveyance (Dangerous Drugs Act s3) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison 40 years · fine 1000000 · note Maximum; separate charging route used for cannabis
PGK
label Fewer than five plants (Controlled Substance Act) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison 2 years, label More than five plants · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison 15 years, label More than twenty plants · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison min 16 years · note Sixteen years to life, label Knowing unauthorised cultivation (Dangerous Drugs Act s3) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison 40 years · fine 1000000 · note Maximum; separate charging route
Recreational cannabis is fully prohibited, with prison the default across both charging routes: up to two years for 10 g or less under the Controlled Substance Act, and up to forty years under the Dangerous Drugs Act route still used for cannabis.[@csa21,dda_case] There is no personal-use allowance, and the tiers are not a guarantee of the only charge.[@csa21]
csa21, dda_case
none
No hemp exception operates: the plant needed to produce fibre remains prohibited, and a 2024 National Research Institute study said the country was not yet ready to legalise hemp production, despite the development plan's call for a policy framework.[@hemp_study,development_plan]
hemp_study, development_plan
Reported cases run to bulk weight: twenty-five years for 14–20 kg in 2025, and K30,000 or twenty years for 4.7 kg in 2026.[@long_case,police] These are enforcement outcomes, not a measure of the trade's size, on which no verified figures were found.
long_case, police
Sentences run from street level to decades: eighteen months for nine packets in 2023,[@small_case] K15,000 (three years in default) for 1.3 kg in 2024,[@dda_case] twenty-five years for 14–20 kg in 2025,[@long_case] and K30,000 or twenty years for 4.7 kg in 2026.[@police] Maximum penalties are not typical sentences.
small_case, dda_case, long_case, police
no
No patient or adult-use purchase route verified