Fiji countries/fj.yaml
label Unauthorised possession under the 2004 Act · treatment criminal · term Possession · fine 1000000 · note Statutory maximum: life imprisonment, a fine, or both; court guidelines favour non-custodial outcomes for up to 100 g
Unauthorised cannabis cultivation is an offence.[@act2004] The 2023 Seru guidelines combine plant count with the grower’s role: fewer than ten plants for personal use and a lesser role fall in a non-custodial to suspended-sentence range.[@seru] Leading-role cultivation of 100 or more plants has an eighteen-year starting point and a sixteen-to-twenty-year range, before the remaining sentencing adjustments.[@seru]
label Fewer than ten plants, personal use, lesser role · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · note Non-custodial to suspended-sentence range under the 2023 Seru guidelines, label Leading role, 100 or more plants · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 16 years · prison 20 years · note Eighteen-year starting point with a sixteen-t … el Unauthorised cultivation under the 2004 Act (statutory maximum) · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · fine 1000000 · note Maximum FJ$1 million fine, life imprisonment, or both
The Sulua guidelines favour outcomes outside prison for possession of up to 100 g, with cu … s and reduced their prison terms from nineteen and eighteen years to fifteen and fourteen.[@appeal2024]
seru, appeal2024
The 2004 law defines supply to include giving cannabis to another person. The same statutory maximum applies to possession and supply, and Sulua’s weight-based guidelines were applied across the listed drug offences.[@act2004,seru] The 2026 law signed in October separates personal use from supply, with commencement to be set by ministerial notice.[@act2026]
label Supply under the 2004 Act (statutory maximum) · treatment criminal · term Supply · fine 1000000 · note Maximum FJ$1 million fine, life imprisonment, or both; weight-based guidelines applied across the listed drug offences
The 2004 law expressly prohibits unauthorised use or administration of an illicit drug, including cannabis.[@act2004] Its medical-treatment and lawful-profession exceptions are set out separately in section 11.[@act2004]
Recreational possession, cultivation and supply are criminal offences. Lawfully prescribed or supplied treatment and authorised professional activity are covered by statutory exceptions.[@act2004]
Cabinet approved a policy to develop a medicinal cannabis industry in February 2024, with company licensingapproval dependent on the industry being established by law.[@cabinet2024] The separate 2022 amend … October 2026 drug-law rewrite requires ministerial Gazette notices to commence.[@act2026]
The 2004 drug schedule lists cannabis, resin, oil, seed and plant material. The 2022 hemp exemption concerns hemp and plant parts derived from it at no more than 1% THC; a person claiming the exemption in a prosecution bears the burden of proving it.
act2004, hemp2022
Fiji has been developing a medicinal cannabis industry proposal. Separately, section 11 of … treatment and permits health-authority licensing of drug imports, exports or manufacture.[@act2004,medical2024]
Cannabis offences can lead to conviction, fines and imprisonment. The guidelines for possession of up to 100 g also allow counselling, community service or discharge with a strong warning.[@act2004,seru]
Schedule 1 of the Illicit Drugs Control Act lists cannabis seed by name as an illicit drug … th no more than 1% THC is excluded, but a person who claims a plant is hemp must prove it.[@act2004,hemp2022]
Unauthorised cannabis cultivation and supply, including giving it to another person, are prohibited under the drug law.[@act2004]
Recreational cannabis possession and supply are criminal offences.[@act2004] For possession up to 100 g, sentencing guidelines favour fines, community service, counselling or a warning, with short or suspended custody reserved for the worst cases.[@seru] Section 11 of the 2004 law separately exempts people entering, leaving or transiting Fiji with up to one month of an illicit drug lawfully prescribed or supplied for treatment of themselves or someone in their care.[@act2004]
Land Transport Act section 102 makes driving or being in charge while drug influence prevents proper vehicle control an offence.[@landtraffic] Police can forbid driving, take the keys and immobilise or remove the vehicle until the person can control it, with a right to request review by a more senior officer in the circumstances specified by the Act.[@landtraffic] The government's published statutory penalty schedule lists a maximum FJ$5,000 fine or fiv … rs' disqualification, subject to the court's statutory powers concerning disqualification.[@landtraffic] These are court penalties, not a roadside ticket tariff.[@landtraffic] Section 103's numerical concentration offence concerns alcohol; no quantified THC threshold appears in section 102.[@landtraffic] The Trade Portal's February 2025 upload reproduces a text incorporating 1999 and 2000 amendments; later changes to the penalty schedule remain a verification target.[@landtraffic]
Fiji recorded 6,659 drug cases between 2019 and 2023, and marijuana accounted for 94 per c … making up the rest, according to figures reported by the Pacific Islands News Association.[@pina24]
Fijivillage — Fiji records 2,446 drug cases from May 2024 to 2025, majority involve marijuana (30 June 2025) Fiji Sun — $241m marijuana seized in nine-month police crackdown (26 February 2026) Fiji Times — 4.9 tonnes of marijuana seized in March (17 April 2025) 10 unchanged
word Indian hemp · lang English · meaning cannabis · sources act2004
Cannabis in Fiji is known as [Indian hemp](/culture/language/indian-hemp/), the colonial name used in the 1938 Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.[@act2004] It is grown locally, especially on Kadavu, and traditional use includes boiling leaves in coconut oil as a skin treatment.[@fijiTimes25] The modern law treats it as an illicit drug, with no cultural exemption.[@act2004]
act2004, fijiTimes25
Fiji recorded 2,446 drug cases from May 2024 to May 2025, of which 2,098, or 85.7 per cent, were marijuana; 50 involved juveniles and 1,506 were aged 18–35.[@fijivillage25] Operation Sasamaki, launched on 1 March 2025, destroyed 18.2 tonnes of marijuana across nine phases, valued at FJ$241 million, and arrested 1,239 people, mostly for possession and cultivation.[@fijisun26] Kadavu is the best-known growing area, with more than 10,000 plants uprooted in 2023, while methamphetamine and cocaine transshipment has surged.[@fijiTimes25] No reliable per-gram retail price was found.[@fijisun26]
fijivillage25, fijisun26, fijiTimes25