Romania countries/ro.yaml
Under Law 143/2000, possessing a 'risk drug' such as cannabis for personal use is a crime punished with three months to two years in prison or a fine.[@dr] Since the 2014 criminal code, users can often end up with a fine or community service.[@lc] A wrinkle: cannabis plant and resin are 'risk drugs', but THC as a compound is listed as 'high-risk', which can raise the penalty.[@dr,lc]
label Personal-use possession of a risk drug · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 3 months · prison 2 years · note Three months to two years orOr a fine; users often end with a fine or community service; THC-as-compound high-risk listing can raise the penalty
Fines and suspended sentences are common for users; prison remains available and is used for repeat cases.[@dr,lc]
label Trafficking in risk drugs · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · prison min 3 years · prison 10 years · note Risk-drug cannabis plant or resin; disqualification of certain rights
Use is not separately punished, but possession for use is.[@dr]
None.[@pp]
There is no legal recreational supply. Personal-use possession brings three months to two … [2023 amendment](/history/romania-trafficking-sentences-raised-2023/).[@trafficking2023] Only CBD products with negligible THC circulate lawfully.[@cms]
dr, lc, trafficking2023, cms
CBD products with negligible THC.
cms
A conviction is a criminal record.[@lc] No spent-conviction or expungement route for drug offences was found in the retained sources.
Driving a vehicle that needs a licence, while under the influence of a psychoactive substa … r a driving test raises that to two to seven years, again with a ban on exercising rights.[@cp336] Law 172 of 31 May 2024 set those sentences. Since 28 January 2025 a binding ruling of the … e in a biological sample, and proof that it was capable of affecting the ability to drive.[@iccj25] The ruling sets no THC number. Proof that the driver made a mistake on the road is outside what the prosecution must show.[@iccj25]
Clubs exist without any legal basis. A Europe-wide survey of cannabis social clubs carried out in 2018 and 2019 received answers from one club in Romania, and its authors could not say how many more were active.[@pardal20] The study notes that clubs sit in a legally sensitive position and that many have been dis … many (since 2024) license non-profit cannabis associations, but only under their own laws.[@de_cang,mt_cap628] Nothing more recent was found.[@pardal20]
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Under Law 143/2000, possessing cannabis for personal use is a crime punished with three months to two years in prison or a fine.[@dr,lc]
The EU drugs agency's statistical bulletin records 861 kg of herbal cannabis and 43 kg of cannabis resin seized in Romania in 2024, against 940 kg and 43 kg in 2023.[@euda_szr] Herbal cannabis was seized on 3,529 occasions and resin on 285. DIICOT's 2025 report adds 1,969.9 kg of cannabis and 2,258 crops or plants seized nationally.[@actmedia26] Countries record seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@euda_szr]
euda_szr, actmedia26
ActMedia — DIICOT 2025 activity report on drug trafficking and consumption (23 February 2026) Wikipedia — Etymology of cannabis (Romanian cânepă) 16 unchanged
label Unauthorised growing for personal use · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 3 months · prison 2 years · note Or a fine; users often end with a fine or community service, label Licensed fibre hemp · treatment legal · term Hemp · note County authorisation, approved EU seed, 0.3% THC checks
Romanian has its own form of the ancient word: cânepă, kin to hemp and hanf, traced in the atlas entry [cannabis](/culture/language/cannabis/).[@cannabiset]
cannabiset
DIICOT's 2025 activity report records 1,969.9 kg of cannabis seized and 2,258 cannabis crops or plants discovered, with traffickers bringing drugs from Western Europe in parcels sent to trial.[@actmedia26] No account of routine user-level arrests was found.
actmedia26