Trinidad and Tobago countries/tt.yaml
The ordinary exemption is 30 g of cannabis or 5 g of resin.[@act24] It does not override section 5C(b): possession on a school bus, or at premises where children are present for education, sport or cultural activities, carries TT$250,000 and five years on summary conviction.[@act24] The separate school-vicinity trafficking presumption in section 5(7) expressly excludes people covered by section 5(2).[@act24] Moderate overages have a ticket scheme; larger amounts remain criminal.[@act24]
Each adult may grow up to four plants at home.[@act24,wiki,tni] More than four is an offence, punished far more harshly than an over-limit possession.[@act24,legalaid]
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The quantity exemption applies in permitted settings.[@act24] Section 5C(b) carries five years even for small amounts in its school-bus and children’s-activity settings.[@act24] Public use has a separate TT$2,000 ticket scheme.[@act24] Trafficking and larger quantities bring criminal penalties.[@act24]
The 2019 amendment removed penalties for possession and growing, not for supply.[@tni] Giving cannabis to another person stays under the supply offences, and selling remains a crime.[@wiki,tni]
Private use is generally lawful.[@legalaid] Public smoking or use falls under section 5A: a TT$50,000 court fine, with a separate TT$2,000 fixed-penalty route.[@act24] The five-year sentence for possession at specified children’s premises is a different offence.[@act24]
None in operation. The [Cannabis Control Act](/history/trinidad-cannabis-control-act-2022/), Act No. 10 of 2022, was assented to on 17 June 2022 and published in the Gazette on 23 June 2022.[@cca22,cca22page] Section 2 brings it into operation only on a date the President fixes by proclamation.[@cca22] Parliament's record of the 2020 bill, which became that Act, still says assent is awaiting proclamation.[@ccb20] The only lawful source today is an adult's own four plants.
Adults get cannabis from their own four home-grown plants: possession of 30 g of cannabishome-grown flower or 5 g of resin is ordinarily exempt, and private use is generally lawful.[@act24,wiki] ThereNothing is lawfully sold — there are no shops —, because the 2022 licensing Act was never proclaimed — and supply stays criminal.[@cca22,wiki] Smo … nd children's-activity premises carry five-year sentences even for small amounts.[@act24] The 2019 reform is traced in the [decriminalisation decision](/history/trinidad-decriminalisation-2019/).
The [2022 Act](/history/trinidad-cannabis-control-act-2022/) would create a Cannabis Licensing Authority and licences for cultivation, processing and sale, once the President proclaims a commencement date.[@cca22] No proclamation is recorded, so commercial cultivation is not licensed.[@ccb20]
Home-grown flower and up to 5 g of resin. Nothing is lawfully sold.
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The 2022 Act provides for medicinal-cannabis licences, including a dispensary licence, but those licences do not operate until the President proclaims a commencement date.[@cca22] There is no working medical programme.[@ccb20]
Section 5D provides discharge and expungement routes for earlier small-possession cases; a pardon may follow expungement.[@act24,legalaid] New offences can still create a criminal record, including section 5C(b) possession in specified settings involving children.[@act24]
The 2019 amendment defines cannabis to include the plant's seeds, other than sterilised seed that cannot germinate.[@act24] Seeds therefore count towards the thirty grammes an adult may hold, and a person may grow or have up to four growing plants.[@act24] Because seeds and plants are cannabis in law, supplying them falls under the trafficking offences.[@act24]
No cannabis clubs are known, and no law provides for them: the 2019 amendment removed penalties for possession and home growing but not for supply, and selling remains a crime.[@wiki,tni]
There is no legal recreational market for visitors or residents.[@cca22] The ordinary personal quantity allowance does not permit possession on school buses or at … ultural activities; section 5C(b) carries TT$250,000 and five years on summary conviction.[@act24]
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Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act section 70 prohibits driving, attempting to drive or being in charge on a road while drug influence prevents proper vehicle control.[@mowtdui] The Transport Ministry's published text gives a first-conviction penalty of TT$12,000 and three years' imprisonment, rising to TT$22,500 and five years on a subsequent conviction.[@mowtdui] Two consecutive offences normally bring three years' disqualification, subject to special reasons and the court's power to impose a longer ban; a third conviction brings permanent disqualification.[@mowtdui] Police may arrest without a warrant.[@mowtdui] Section 70A separately concerns alcohol concentrations: the Finance Act 2025 doubled its fines, without amending section 70's drug-impairment penalty.[@finance2025] Separately, Dangerous Drugs Act section 5C(c) covers control of a motor vehicle, aircraft or ship while under cannabis influence, carrying TT$250,000 and five years on summary conviction.[@act24] No numeric THC allowance was established in the sources reviewed.[@act24,mowtdui]
Oipol quoting TTPS/Ministry of Homeland Security — over TT$314M in narcotics seized in back-to-back operations (2 October 2025) Economic Analysis of the Potential Liberalization of Marijuana Laws in CARICOM — report commissioned by the CARICOM Commission on Marijuana (2018) Wiktionary — herb 10 unchanged
word Ganja · lang Trinidadian English · meaning the standard word for cannabis, brought by indentured labourers from India in the 19th century · sources wiki, word Herb · lang Trinidadian English · meaning cannabis, especially in Rastafari and reggae-influenced usage · sources wiktionary-herb
TTD
upto 30 g · treatment legal · term Exempt personal quantity · note Cannabis flower; 5 g for resin. Does not apply on school buses or at specified children's-activity premises, over 30 g · upto 60 g · treatment criminal · term TT$50,000 fine on summary conviction · fine 50000 · note Cannabis flower; 5–10 g for resin. A TT$2,000 fixed-penalty notice may be offered instead; an unpaid court fine can become 30 hours' community service, over 60 g · upto 100 g · treatment criminal · term TT$75,000 fine on summary conviction · fine 75000 · note Cannabis flower; 10–14 g for resin. An unpaid court fine can become 50 hours' community service, over 100 g · treatment criminal · term TT$250,000 and five years on summary conviction · note Cannabis flower; over 14 g for resin. On indictment, TT$1 million and up to fifteen years, label Any amount on a school bus or at specified children's-activity premises · treatment criminal · term TT$250,000 and five years on summary conviction · note Section 5C(b) overrides the personal-quantity exemption in these settings
upto 4 plants · treatment legal · term Home growing · note Per adult, at home, over 4 plants · treatment criminal · term TT$750,000 and ten years on summary conviction · note On indictment, TT$2 million or ten times the street value, and up to life imprisonment
none
Trinidad and Tobago has no industrial-hemp or low-THC exemption: cannabis grown for fibre counts as cultivation like any other.[@act24] The 2019 definition only carves out stalk fibre, seed oil, sterile seed and products combined with other ingredients.[@legalaid] The unproclaimed 2022 licensing Act contains no hemp regime either.[@cca22]
act24, legalaid, cca22
With no legal market, all cannabis beyond home growing changes hands illegally, and the islands sit on a transit route: in back-to-back operations around 1 October 2025 police seized 1,177 kg of Colombian "creepy" marijuana and 117 kg of cocaine at Palo Seco, days after 202 kg of Colombian marijuana was taken off Point Fortin, with a combined street value over TT$314 million.[@ttps25] Smuggling from Venezuela is an old pattern — producers grew across the gulf and ran it back in the 1890s (see the [Venezuela smuggling entry](/history/trinidad-venezuela-ganja-smuggling-1895/)).
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Before the 2019 reform, police arrested thousands a year for cannabis: 3,128 men and 265 women in 2012, 3,220 men and 270 women in 2015, and 3,022 men and 201 women in 2017.[@caricom18]
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Ganja came to Trinidad with indentured labourers from India, who grew it for their own use from the mid-19th century; the Hindi word [ganja](/culture/language/ganja/) came with them.[@wiki] The colonial state first licensed the trade — Trinidad's Ganja Ordinance of 1915 copied Bengal's warehouse system — then banned it in the [1925 ban](/history/trinidad-ganja-ordinance-1925/).[@wiki] The 1890s smuggling trade across the Gulf of Paria, with growers working Venezuelan soil and running the crop back, is traced in the [Venezuela smuggling entry](/history/trinidad-venezuela-ganja-smuggling-1895/).
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