Nigeria countries/ng.yaml
Under the NDLEA Act, possession of cannabis ('Indian hemp') without lawful authority carri … gh plea deals or lesser charges — but the statutory minimum is among the highest anywhere.[@om,lii]
label Possession without lawful authority · treatment criminal · term Imprisonment · prison min 15 years · prison 25 years · note Small cases often end shorter through plea deals or lesser charges
The drug agency runs constant raids, farm destructions and arrests.[@om] Nigeria has one of the largest populations of cannabis users in the world, so the law touches very large numbers of people.[@aa,om]
Selling, buying, offering for sale or otherwise dealing carries life imprisonment under the NDLEA Act.[@idpc17] In July 2025 the Federal High Court in Ibadan gave a man 16 years for dealing in 407 grams of cannabis, noting he was not a first offender.[@gaz25,aa]
None: the NDLEA Act punishes possession, growing and dealing alike, with no lawful channel for adults.[@idpc17]
There is no legal recreational market — nothing is lawfully produced or sold. Possession without lawful authority carries fifteen to twenty-five years on paper, but s … idespread: Nigeria has one of the largest cannabis-using populations in the world.[@aa,om]
None. Bills to license medical and industrial cannabis have been introduced in the National Assembly without passing; the drug agency opposes them.[@om,cgh] When the governor of Ondo State, where much cannabis is grown, was reported to have urged … the agency denied it and said the trip had been about moving farmers away from drug crops.[@om]
None.
om
No medical cannabis programme exists: the NDLEA Act punishes possession, growing and dealing alike with no lawful channel, and bills to license medical cannabis have not passed.[@idpc17,om]
om, idpc17
A conviction is a criminal record; the agency also pushes drug testing for students, politicians and couples before marriage.[@om]
The Indian Hemp Act defines Indian hemp as "any plant or part of a plant of the genus cann … plant or cultivate any cannabis plant, as well as to import, sell or possess Indian hemp.[@iha]
The whole market is illegal and largely home-grown.[@nan25] A 2019 UN survey documented 8,900 hectares of cannabis across six southern states; cultiva … while use is rising among young people in northern states such as Kano, Kaduna and Borno.[@nan25] The drug agency NDLEA destroyed 847 hectares of plantations in 2013 and more than 4,500 in 2014, and has destroyed many farms since 2021, yet growing continues.[@nan25] In 2023 the agency set up an alternative development unit to move cannabis farmers to food crops and livestock.[@nan25]
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@om,aa]
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone.[@idpc17] The penalties are fifteen to twenty-five years for possession or use under the drug agency's Act, and at least four years with no option of a fine for smoking or possessing Indian hemp under the older Act.[@idpc17,iha]
The drug agency NDLEA reports its figures for all drugs together.[@ndlea25] Its chairman said that between January 2021 and March 2025 it arrested 62,595 suspects, 68 of them described as drug barons, secured 11,628 convictions and seized about 10.3 million kg of drugs.[@ndlea25] In the first ten months of 2025 it reported more than 16,304 arrests, about 3,000 convictions and 4.5 million kg seized.[@ndlea25b] Cannabis is counted separately only by land: 1,331 hectares of cannabis farms destroyed in the four-year period and 612 hectares from January to October 2025.[@ndlea25,ndlea25b]
Section 22 of the Federal Road Safety Commission Act prohibits driving on a highway under the influence of intoxicating drugs, including inability to maintain proper control of the vehicle.[@frscact] It provides a fine of 5,000 naira, up to two years in prison, or both on conviction.[@frscact] The separate 0.5 g/l value in the section concerns alcohol, not THC.[@frscact] FRSC's published notice-of-offence schedule lists drug/alcohol driving as five points and a 5,000-naira payment; that payment schedule does not replace the court's imprisonment power.[@frscdui] A THC concentration limit and a fixed licence-ban duration were not established in the sources reviewed.[@frscact,frscdui]
Medical and Social Problems of Drug Addiction in West Africa (With Special Emphasis on Psychiatric Aspects) 17 unchanged
word Indian hemp · lang Nigerian English · meaning the statutory and official name for cannabis in Nigeria, from colonial law · sources iha, om
label Production, planting or growing (NDLEA Act) · treatment criminal · term Life imprisonment · life possible, label Planting or cultivating (Indian Hemp Act) · treatment criminal · term At least 21 years' imprisonment · note The 1975 amendment removed the capital sentence for cultivation; the 1984 amendment set the 21-year minimum
none
Nigerian law makes no industrial-hemp or low-THC distinction: the Indian Hemp Act covers any plant of the genus cannabis, and the drug agency opposes licensing bills for medical or industrial cannabis.[@iha,om] Bills to license medical and industrial cannabis have been introduced in the National Assembly without passing.[@om,cgh]
iha, om, cgh
In court the plant is [Indian hemp](/culture/language/indian-hemp/): the colonial name written into the 1966 decree is still the statutory term, and the drug agency uses it for every seizure.[@iha,om] Nigerian doctors were among Africa's first to study it as medicine rather than crime — Tolani Asuni's 1964 work traced its arrival to the Second World War (see [the wartime-introduction findings](/history/nigeria-wartime-introduction-asuni-1964/)), and [Thomas Adeoye Lambo](/culture/people/thomas-adeoye-lambo/) made addiction a psychiatric question at Aro shortly before the soldiers made cultivation a capital crime.[@asuni64,lambo65] The harshest turn is traced in the [1984 death-penalty decree](/history/nigeria-decree-20-1984/).
iha, om, asuni64, lambo65