Syria: correct the 1993 Act penalties, tables and 12 history entries

Law No. 2 of 1993, approved by the People's Assembly on 31 March and issued on 12 April, replaced the drug law of 1960. Article 39 sets death for any smuggling or making drugsunlicensed manufacture and for growing theunlicensed cultivation of a listed plantsplant, with no quantity threshold; a court that finds mitigating grounds may reduce it to life or to at least twenty years, but not for a repeat offender, an official or, a member ofminor, an international gang or abuse of office. Dealing brings life imprisonment. Possession for personal use brings a term oftemporary detention, which the Penal Code fixes at three to fifteen years, and a fine of 100,000 to 500,000 pounds, which; the court may suspend the sentence to send an addict to a clinic for three months to a year, and no case is brought against a user who comes forward for treatmenttwelve months. Amnesty International had appealed to President Hafez al-Assad not to sign the death penalty clause.

Syria — Law No. 2 of 1993 on Narcotic Drugs (Syrian Legal Platform PDF) Syria — Penal Code No. 148 of 1949 قانون المخدرات السوري رقم 2 لعام 1993 — text as reproduced by Lawyer Egypt Wikipedia — Cannabis in Syria 1 unchanged

Up toPersonal possession for use carries three to fifteen years for personal possessionand a fine, with a treatment route for dependent users; smuggling, manufacture and cultivation carry death penalty for growers, and traffickerstrafficking can bring death with aggravating facts. Captagon dominates enforcement.

Hashish is controlled under the 1993 narcotics law. Possession for personal consumption is a crime, with prison terms reported at up to three years. People deemed addicts who complete state rehabilitation, and have no prior record, face no further penalty. Article 43 of the 1993 narcotics law punishes possessing, in the copy readbuying, setsholding or transporting a term ofdrug for personal use with temporary detention and a fine of 100,000 to –500,000 Syrian pounds for having.[@law1993] "Temporary detention" is three to fifteen years under article 44 of the Penal Code, buying or carrying drugs for personal use;where the special law sets no other term, so the profile's earlier "up to three years" was wrong.[@penal1949] A court may suspend the sentence and send ana proven addict to a clinic for three months to twelve months; a yearperson who seeks treatment, thoughor whose spouse or close relative asks for it, is not prosecuted unless caught in the act.[@law1993] Residual possession outside use or trade carries up to one year and a third timesmall fine.[@law1993]

wikilaw1993, l2penal1949

Cultivation can bring life imprisonment or death; the 1993 law explicitly extended the death penalty to growers. Growing a listed plant is banned at every stage, including seeds.[@law1993] Unlicensed cultivation for personal usetrade is not treated separately:an Article 39 covers all unlicensed growing, and a court may reduceoffence carrying death, with mitigation to life or to at least twenty years and a fine of 1–5 million pounds; mitigation is barred for a repeat offender, an anti-drug official, use of a minor, an international gang or abuse of office.[@law1993] Growing for personal use is charged under Article 43, with three to fifteen years.[@law1993] There is no plant-count threshold.[@law1993]

wiki, l2law1993

Enforcement is dominated by Captagon, not cannabis. The 1993 interior ministry reported 1,550 anti-narcotics law grades its penalties steeply: detentionoperations and a fine for having drugs for personal use90 international networks dismantled between December 2024 and June 2026, which a court may suspend to send an addict for treatment; at least ten years for giving drugs to another person; life imprisonment for selling;with about 697 million Captagon pills, 15 tonnes of hashish and death or life for growing. No account221 tonnes of howprecursors seized.[@sana26] The 15 tonnes are cumulative, not annual, and the authorities that took powerfigures cover all drugs.[@sana26] No national cannabis-only arrest series is published.[@incsr05] The 1993 law remains in December 2024 applyforce: the law to users was foundRaqqa criminal court applied Article 40 on 21 October 2026.[@raqqa26]

l2sana26, incsr05, raqqa26

Trafficking carries long termsSelling, life or deathpossessing for large quantities. Under the 1993 law sellingsale, or possessingtransporting for sale, bringsbrokering or managing a drug den for payment carries life imprisonment and a 1–5 million pound fine.[@law1993] Death is available for the same conduct with a prior drug conviction, an anti-drug official, a minor, an international gang, abuse of one to five million poundsoffice, or in a school, camp, prison, place of worship or sports institution; giving drugs to another person without payment bringsthose facts the sentence is life.[@law1993] Giving drugs free or facilitating use carries at least ten years, and life where a minor is involved.[@law1993] Importing, manufacturing or cultivating for trade carries death.[@law1993]

wiki, l2law1993

UseThere is anno standalone consumption offence, with in the treatment route for dependent users1993 law. No case is brought against a[@law1993] A user who goes to the authoritiesis charged under Article 43 for treatment of their own accordpossessing with intent to use, with three to fifteen years and a 100,000–500,000 pound fine, or whose spouse or close relative asksunder Article 46 for it, unless they were caughtknowingly being in the act;a place prepared for drug use, with six months to a year.[@law1993] The treatment is confidentialroute can suspend the sentence or bar prosecution.[@law1993]

wiki, l2law1993

No legal source for patients or recreational users. Article 31 lets the health minister license state institutions, scientific institutes and recognised research centres to grow prohibited plants or import seed for medical or scientific purposes, but that is not a patient-supply route.[@law1993] No registered cannabis medicine or prescription programme was found.[@law1993]

wiki, l2law1993

Trafficking in large quantities can bring life imprisonment orArticle 39 imposes death for any smuggling, andunlicensed manufacture or unlicensed cultivation of a 1993 law explicitly extended the death penaltylisted plant, with no quantity threshold; mitigation to growerslife or at least twenty years is possible unless a listed aggravating fact applies.[@law1993] Article 39 names smuggling40 allows death for trafficking, making drugs and growing the listed plants. Mitigation is excludedpossession for sale or keeping a repeat offenderdrug den only with a prior drug conviction, an anti-drug official charged with fighting drugs, someone who used a minor, or a member of an international smuggling gang, abuse of office or a sensitive location. A judicial source[@law1993] Simple possession under Article 43 cannot bring death.[@law1993] No cannabis death sentence or execution was confirmed in 2014 put2024–2026; Syria recorded no executions in 2025, and the range for trafficking at ten years tofirst post-Assad death sentence, in November 2025, was for murder.[@amnesty25,euaa26]

wikilaw1993, l2amnesty25, so14euaa26

NoneNo lawful cannabis production. Article 30 bans the listed plants at every stage, including seeds, and the only exception is research by state institutions and recognised research centres.[@law1993] Hashish production boomedexpanded during the civil war in areas outside state control:, in the Kurdish enclaves from 2012 and in the hills of Idlib, where it paid for weapons. The Islamic State burned fields it found. After; after the fall of the Assad government the security forces destroyed about 15 tonnes of hashish in a few weeks.[@rudaw13,cv14,occrp25]

gnlaw1993, rudaw13, cv14, occrp25

Reliable national information about legally available cannabis products was not established by the retained sources.

The retained sources do not establish whether aNo medical cannabis programme operates. The 1993 law allows controlled narcotic medicines to be prescribed and dispensed through pharmacies, but cannabis is a prohibited plant rather than a listed medicine.[@law1993] Article 31 permits institutional cultivation or seed import for medical or scientific research, not patient access.[@law1993]

law1993

The retained sources do not establish collateral consequences beyondArticle 59 requires confiscation of drugs, equipment and proceeds, and the penalties described abovelaw provides for closure of premises used in an offence.[@law1993] A conviction is a criminal record. No separate collateral consequence, such as deportation, was verified.[@law1993]

law1993

No national figures for cannabis were foundarrest series is published. A judicial source counted 620 drug cases before[@incsr05] In 2004 the courts in four months of 2014authorities recorded 3, against fewer than 500677 arrests in all of 2013. In the north-east2, outside the state's control540 narcotics cases, the Autonomous Administration's security forces reported all drugs.[@incsr05] The 2026 campaign figures (1,875 arrests550 operations) also cover all drugs and Captagon.[@sana26] Recent cannabis cases include two Lebanese nationals arrested in a campaign from September 2020 toAleppo with 800 kg in June 2021, 1,165 of them users,2025 and 1,700 kilograms of hashish seizedfour people arrested in Damascus with 36 kg in October 2026.[@sana_jun25,sana_oct26]

so14incsr05, aawsat21sana26, sana_jun25, sana_oct26

Article 30 of Law 2 of 1993 bans growing, importing, owning, holding or buying the listed plants at any stage of growth, as well as their seeds; only plant parts named in a separate schedule are exempt.[@law1993] Only state institutions, scientific institutes and recognised research centres canmay be licensed to grow them or import seeds. Article 39 sets the death penalty for unlicensed growing. The text read is a copy on a law firm's site.[@law1993]

l2law1993

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.[@law1993]

wikilaw1993

There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Under the 1993 narcotics law, having or carrying drugsPersonal possession for personal use brings detentioncarries three to fifteen years and a fine of 100,000 to –500,000 pounds, selling bringspound fine; supplying another person carries life imprisonment, and unlicensed growing death or lifedeath with aggravating facts.[@law1993]

l2law1993

Hashish circulates beside the far larger Captagon trade. The interior ministerministry said in June 20252026 that in the weeks after the fall of the Assad government the security forces had destroyed about 15 tonnes of hashish and about 100697 million Captagon pills since December 2024, and that the hashish price rose from about $220 to $600 a kilogram.[@sana26] Individual cannabis cases include 800 kg in Aleppo in June 2025 and nearly 500 kg in Sweida in July 2026.[@sana_jun25,sana_jul26] In the north-east, the Autonomous Administration's security forces reported 1,700 kg of hashish and 2,637 kg of hashish paste seized, and 1,875 people arrested, in a campaign from Septemberits 2020 to June 2021–21 campaign.[@aawsat21]

occrp25sana26, sana_jun25, sana_jul26, aawsat21

Syria — Law No. 2 of 1993 on Narcotic Drugs (Syrian Legal Platform PDF) Syria — Penal Code No. 148 of 1949 SANA — Syria Without Drugs campaign and enforcement tally (26 June 2026) SANA — Two Lebanese nationals arrested with 800 kg of hashish in Aleppo (9 June 2025) SANA — Nearly 500 kg of hashish seized in Sweida (20 July 2026) SANA — Four arrested with 36 kg of hashish in Damascus (26 October 2026) SANA — Traffic law replacement being drafted (5 October 2026) Syrian News Agency — Raqqa criminal court applies Article 40 (21 October 2026) Amnesty International — Death sentences and executions 2025 EUAA — Syria country focus: death penalty (July 2026) U.S. Department of State — International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2005: Syria The Syrian Observer, translating Al-Watan — on drug cases before the courts (2 July 2014) قانون المخدرات السوري رقم 2 لعام 1993 — text as reproduced by Lawyer Egypt Wikipedia — Cannabis in Syria Gulf News — Amid war in Syria, hashish business booms 4 unchanged

SYP

label Possession for personal use (Article 43) · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison min 3 years · prison 15 years · fine min 100000 · fine 500000 · note Treatment for three to twelve months may replace the sentence, label Residual possession (Article 45) · treatment criminal · term Other possession · prison 1 year · fine 5000

SYP

label Cultivation for personal use (Article 43) · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison min 3 years · prison 15 years · fine min 100000 · fine 500000, label Cultivation for trade (Article 39) · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · death true · fine min 1000000 · fine 5000000 · note Mitigation to life where the court finds grounds

SYP

label Sale or possession for sale (Article 40) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · fine min 1000000 · fine 5000000 · note Death with the Article 39(b) aggravating facts or in listed sensitive places, label Giving drugs free or facilitating use (Article 42) · treatment criminal · term Supply · prison min 10 years · fine min 500000 · fine 2000000 · note Life where a minor is involved or coercion, deception or enticement is used, label Import, manufacture or cultivation for trade (Article 39) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · death true · fine min 1000000 · fine 5000000 · note Mitigation to life where the court finds grounds, label Presence in a place prepared for drug use (Article 46) · treatment criminal · term Presence · prison min 6 months · prison 1 year · fine min 1000 · fine 5000

no

No legal source; only institutional medical and research handling is excepted

All recreational use is prohibited. Personal possession for use carries three to fifteen years and a 100,000–500,000 pound fine, with a treatment route; supply carries life or, with aggravating facts, death.[@law1993] The death penalty is not available for simple possession.[@law1993] [The 1993 law still governs.](/history/syria-death-penalty-1993/)

law1993

none

No hemp or CBD regime and no THC threshold. Article 30 bans the cannabis plant at every stage of growth, including seeds, and the only exception is institutional research cultivation.[@law1993] No fibre-hemp or CBD exemption was found.[@law1993]

law1993

unknown

No cannabis-specific driving offence or THC limit was verified. The traffic law is Law 31 of 2004 as amended in 2008, and a replacement was being drafted in October 2026.[@sana_traffic] Whether the current text uses an impairment test or a prohibited-substance rule could not be confirmed.[@sana_traffic]

sana_traffic