Norway countries/no.yaml
Possession is a criminal offence. For up to 15 g for personal use the normal outcome is a fine — but the kind that is entered on the criminal record.[@sn,tni] After Supreme Court rulings, the Attorney General instructed in May 2022 that people with drug dependency should no longer be punished for small amounts, with doubt resolved in their favour.[@ra22,hr22] Recreational users are still fined.[@sn] [The court ended punishment for dependent users in 2022.](/history/norway-supreme-court-2022/)
sn, tni, ra22, hr22
upto 15 g · treatment criminal · term Narcotics offence (section 231) · note Fine entered on the criminal record; people with drug dependency are no longer punished for small amounts
Growing cannabis is a crime, prosecuted as drug production: section 231 of the Penal Code punishes anyone who unlawfully manufactures a narcotic with a fine or up to two years in prison,[@strl] and section 232 raises the maximum to ten years for an aggravated offence.[@strl]
label Drug production (Penal Code section 231) · treatment criminal · term Manufacture of a narcotic (section 231) · prison 2 years · note Fine or up to two years, label Aggravated drug production (Penal Code section 232) · treatment criminal · term Aggravated narcotics offence (section 232) · prison 10 years
Fines for most users, none for dependent users with small amounts.[@sn,tni] A 2021 government bill to decriminalise all personal possession was voted down in parliament.[@sn] [Parliament rejected decriminalisation in 2021.](/history/norway-reform-rejected-2021/)
Supply is a crime.[@strl] When the Supreme Court ended punishment for dependent users in 2022, the Director of Public Prosecutions stressed that the judgments do not touch drugs meant for resale.[@ra22,hr22] [The 2022 judgments do not touch drugs meant for resale.](/history/norway-supreme-court-2022/)
ra22, wikihr22, strl
Use is itself an offence, fined in the same way as possession.[@sn]
sn, wiki
No legal source for adults: section 231 of the Penal Code makes it an offence to acquire, store, import or hand over a narcotic unlawfully.[@strl] The only lawful route is medical: two approved prescription medicines, plus case-by-case specialist applications for other products since 2018.[@dmp] [Norway had approved a single cannabis patient by 2016.](/history/norway-one-medical-patient-2016/)
strl, wikidmp
There is no legal way to get cannabis. Adults buy hashish from dealers and use in private: … l amounts after the 2022 rulings and guidelines, but recreational users still are.[@ra22] [The court ended punishment for dependent users in 2022.](/history/norway-supreme-court-2022/)
No licensed cannabis production exists: growing is manufacture of a narcotic under section 231 of the Penal Code,[@strl] and the medical route runs on approved prescription medicines and case-by-case specialist permits rather than domestic growing.[@dmp]
wikistrl, dmp
Two authorised cannabinoid medicines only.
wiki
Narrow: two approved prescription medicines, plus case-by-case specialist applications for other products since 2018.[@dmp] As of late 2016 a single patient in the whole country had been approved.[@wiki] [Norway had approved a single cannabis patient by 2016.](/history/norway-one-medical-patient-2016/)
dmp, wiki
The fine appears on the criminal record, which can block jobs, visas and a driving licence — the main real-world penalty for Norwegian users.[@sn]
Norway's narcotics list defines cannabis as the above-ground parts of any plant of the genus, "except the seeds". Seeds are therefore not narcotics.[@nf] Growing plants to produce narcotics counts as manufacture under section 7 of the narcotics regulation and needs a permit.[@nf]
Norway sets graded limits for THC of 1.3, 3 and 9 nanograms per millilitre of blood, meant to match the national blood-alcohol steps, together with a general impairment offence.[@euda_dd] Police may stop and test at random, with oral-fluid tests and blood taken at a hospital or police station.[@euda_dd] The ban is at least one year, the fine about one and a half times gross monthly income, an … ducts, are incompatible with driving under the guide unless a formal exemption is granted.[@dmp_drive] Groups 2 and 3 do not qualify.[@fitness,dmp_drive]
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited under section 231 of the Penal Code.[@strl]
wikistrl
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone.[@sn] Possession is a criminal offence; for up to 15 g for personal use the normal outcome is a fine that is entered on the criminal record.[@sn,tni]
The EU drugs agency's statistical bulletin records 1,087 kg of herbal cannabis and 2,591 kg of cannabis resin seized in Norway in 2024, against 533 kg and 3,281 kg in 2023.[@euda_szr] Herbal cannabis was seized on 2,345 occasions and resin on 5,939.[@euda_szr] Countries record seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@euda_szr]
The national police statistics kept by Kripos count drug cases, not people: 18,273 in 2024, 12 per cent more than in 2023, after a decline that ran from 2014 to 2022.[@kripos24] A case is counted once whatever it is charged as, so the series does not separate use and possession from sale.[@kripos24] Cannabis accounted for 40 per cent of drug seizures: 7,547 seizures of hashish, marijuana and plants, 8 per cent more than the year before, weighing 3,678 kg in all.[@kripos24] Kripos notes that minor cases are often settled by a fine without the substance being analysed, which makes the seizure counts uncertain.[@kripos24]
Norges Høyesterett — HR-2022-731-A (8 April 2022) Cannabis Museum Amsterdam — Vikings and Hemp 14 unchanged
Hemp sailed with the Vikings: the Oseberg ship burial of 834 held hemp remnants among its grave goods, and hemp fibre rigged ships and caulked planks.[@oseberg] Eleven centuries later the plant came back as contraband: police recorded Norway's first cannabis seizure in 1965, and section 162 of the Penal Code criminalised use three years later.[@wiki] [Police recorded the first cannabis seizure in 1965.](/history/norway-first-cannabis-seizure-1965/) [Section 162 criminalised use in 1968.](/history/norway-section-162-1968/)
oseberg, wiki
Punishment ends where dependency begins