Malaysia countries/my.yaml
label Basic possession, Section 6 · treatment criminal · term Section 6 · prison 5 years · fine 20000 · note Up to RM20,000, up to five years, or both, label 20 g or more but under 50 g, Section 39A · treatment criminal · term Section 39A · prison min 2 years · prison 5 years · note Caning exclusions apply · caning 3, 9, label 50 g or more, Section 39A · treatment criminal · term Section 39A · prison min 5 years · note Life imprisonment available; at 200 g, rebuttable trafficking presumption; caning exclusions apply · caning 10, 24
label Planting or cultivating, Section 6B · treatment criminal · term Section 6B · note Life imprisonment, even for a single plant; caning exclusions apply · caning 6, 24
Prison and caning for possession, and the death penalty still available for trafficking.[@hrw] The 2023 reform let over a thousand death-row prisoners apply for resentencing.[@mh]
label Trafficking, Section 39B (since 2023) · treatment criminal · term Section 39B · death true · note Discretionary death or life imprisonment, plus at least twelve strokes if not death
Section 15 makes consuming or self-administering a listed drug an offence with a fine of up to RM5,000 or up to two years in prison.[@dda]
label Consumption, Section 15 · treatment criminal · term Section 15 · prison 2 years · fine 5000 · note Up to RM5,000 or up to two years
None. The Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 allows cannabis to be imported only with the Minister's authorisation, punishes possession without such authority, and lets only an authorised public officer grow the plant.[@dda]
The death penalty remains available for trafficking, which is presumed from 200 g of cannabis.[@dda] Since July 2023 it is discretionary, not mandatory, and the reform let over a thousand death- row prisoners apply for resentencing.[@hrw,@mh]
Medical or research use is lawful only with authorisation from the health minister, which is rarely granted.[@dda] Hemp-derived CBD products require registration as medicines.[@dda] The government has studied a medical framework for several years without enacting one.[@wiki]
Registered drug users face supervision orders; foreigners are deported after serving their sentence.[@wiki]
Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 makes it an offence to possess cannabis "or the seeds of the plants from which they may be obtained" without authorisation, with up to five years in prison.[@dda52] Section 6B forbids planting or cultivating any plant from which cannabis may be obtained.[@dda52]
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited, and the law provides for the death penalty for the most serious drug offences.[@dda]
Road Transport Act section 44 covers drug influence that makes the driver incapable of proper control and causes injury or death.[@road333] A first conviction causing injury carries seven to ten years in prison, a RM30,000–50,000 fine and at least seven years' licence disqualification.[@road333] Causing death carries ten to fifteen years, RM50,000–100,000 and at least ten years' disqualification; repeat convictions bring higher penalties.[@road333] Section 45 separately covers an unfit person in charge of a vehicle on a road or public place while not driving: a.[@road333] A first conviction carries RM1,000–5,000, possible imprisonment up to two years and at least two years' disqualification, subject to a statutory defence about no likelihood of driving while unfit.[@road333] Probationary licences are revoked on conviction under either section.[@road333] Section 45A's concentration offence concerns alcohol, not a THC limit; the section 44 penalties above require injury or death.[@road333]
Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office record 4,025 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 4,800 kg in 2023.[@unodc_szr] The UN publishes them as kilogram equivalents, and countries count seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@unodc_szr]
The federal police narcotics department reported 248,885 arrests for drug offences of all kinds between March 2024 and 16 February 2025, including 719 civil servants, and seizures of 102 tonnes of drugs.[@fmt25] Cannabis accounted for 3,203 kg of that, far behind methamphetamine at 39,397 kg and ketum at 53,879 kg.[@fmt25] The police gave no breakdown of the arrests by drug or by offence.[@fmt25]
none
No industrial-hemp or low-THC exemption was found. Cannabis is a dangerous drug under the 1952 Act, and hemp-derived CBD products require registration as medicines.[@dda] No fibre-hemp licensing scheme was found.[@dda]
dda
Cannabis in Malaysia is known as [ganja](/culture/language/ganja/), a word carried across the Indian Ocean world. The plant has a long history in Malay and Indian-Muslim materia medica, but the modern Dangerous Drugs Act treats it as a dangerous drug with no cultural exemption.[@dda]
dda