Saudi Arabia countries/sa.yaml
Article 41 punishes possessing, buying, receiving or otherwise obtaining cannabis for personal use with six months to two years in prison.[@law] There is no exempt personal amount and no quantity threshold.[@law] Where personal use cannot be proved, Article 39 provides two to five years and a fine of 3,000 to 30,000 riyals for possession without trade, promotion or use.[@law]
label Possession for personal use (Article 41) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 6 months · prison 2 years · note Six months to two years in prison; noNo exempt personal amount; treatment substitution available for dependent and voluntary users, label Possession without proven purpose (Article 39) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 2 years · prison 5 years · fine min 3000 · fine 30000 · note Flogging remains in the statute, though discretionary flogging was abolished in 2020
Cannabis and its seeds are listed as prohibited plants.[@schedule] Unauthorised cultivation is a crime and cultivation connected with supply is treated under the law's trafficking provisions.[@law]
Personal users face prison.[@law] Article 37 permits death sentences for importing, exporting, manufacturing or receiving drugs for distribution, although a court may reduce the sentence to at least 15 years in prison.[@law] Discretionary flogging was abolished in 2020, but executions resumed in 2022 and people were executed for hashish smuggling as recently as July 2026.[@amnesty,hrw]
law, un, amnesty, hrw
Giving cannabis to another person for promotion, even without payment, is treated as dealing.[@law] Article 38 provides five to 15 years in prison and a fine; aggravated or repeat trafficking can bring longer imprisonment or death.[@law]
label Dealing, including giving without payment (Article 38) · treatment criminal · term Dealing · prison min 5 years · prison 15 years · note Five to fifteen years and a fine; aggravated min 1000 · fine 50000 · note Aggravated or repeat trafficking can bring longer imprisonment or death, label Smuggling, import, manufacture or cultivation to promote (Article 37) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · death true · note Death; courts may reduce to a term of years and a fine in mitigating cases, or impose 25 years with aggravating factors
Use is a crime within Article 41's six-month-to-two-year prison range.[@law] A dependent user may be sent to treatment instead, and someone who voluntarily seeks treatment can avoid prosecution if the law's conditions are met.[@law]
None. Cannabis is a prohibited plant and there is no medical or adult-use supply route.[@schedule]
Article 37 permits death sentences for importing, exporting, manufacturing or receiving drugs for distribution, although a court may reduce the sentence to at least 15 years in prison.[@law] Executions resumed in 2022, and people were executed for hashish smuggling as recently as July 2026.[@amnesty,hrw]
law, un, amnesty, hrw
None. The official schedules prohibit cannabis plants, their fibre and their seeds; there is no licensed cannabis-production programme.[@schedule]
Cannabis is controlled under names including hashish and marijuana, and the prohibition extends to every part of the plant. No general hemp or CBD exemption is provided.
schedule
No medical cannabis programme.[@law] The law licenses some medicines containing controlled drugs, but cannabis itself remains on the prohibited-plant schedule rather than a patient-access pathway.[@schedule]
Foreigners areA drug conviction carries a criminal record and the penalties in the tables.[@law] Foreign Hajj or Umrah visitors caught with a personal-use amount may be deported instead of prosecuted under Article 47; general deportation of foreign convicts rests on the residency law, which was not verified here.[@law] Discretionary flogging was abolished in 2020, but the drug statute still prescribes it and banned from returning after serving their sentencejudges have reportedly continued to impose it in some drug cases.[@law]
Article 3 of the narcotics law bans growing the listed plants and importing, owning or hol … heir seeds; anyone who does work needed for seeds or seedlings to grow counts as a grower.[@moh19] Holding or selling seeds with intent to traffic carries five to fifteen years under Article 38.[@law] The Interior Minister may license only government bodies and research centres to import and sow seeds.[@moh19]
moh19, law
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.[@law]
law, schedule
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone.[@law] Article 41 of the narcotics law punishes possessing, buying or receiving cannabis for personal use with six months to two years in prison, and no amount is exempt.[@law]
law, schedule
Saudi Arabia — Traffic Law, Royal Decree M/85 of 2007, Article 68 and penalty schedule Saudi Press Agency — Border Guard seizes 1.3 tonnes of hashish and 136 tonnes of khat (28 December 2024) Saudi Press Agency — Border Guard seizes 4 tonnes of hashish and 180 tonnes of khat (12 June 2025) Saudi Gazette — Border Guard seizes 2.8 tonnes of hashish and 138 tonnes of khat (23 August 2026) Human Rights Watch — Saudi Arabia: Record Number of Executions in 2025 (13 January 2026) 6 unchanged
SAR
SAR
label Cultivation for personal use (Article 41) · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 6 months · prison 2 years, label Cultivation with intent to promote (Article 37) · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · death true · note Death; courts may reduce to a term of years and a fine in mitigating cases, label Seeds or plants with intent to trade (Article 38) · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 5 years · prison 15 years · fine min 1000 · fine 50000
SAR
none
Cannabis plants and seeds are on Schedule 4 and prohibited at every growth stage; there is no fibre, seed-food or THC-threshold exemption.[@schedule] The 2026 general provisions ban herbal-source CBD, while fully synthetic CBD with no THC is exempt if certified by an accredited laboratory, and approved medical CBD preparations remain controlled.[@uqn26] There is no industrial-hemp licensing scheme.[@schedule]
schedule, uqn26
impairment
Traffic Law article 68 treats driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or warned prescription medicines as an offence.[@traffic] The published penalty schedule provides a fine of 5,000 to 10,000 riyals, licence suspension for up to a year and impounding of the vehicle, alongside the Article 41 drug offence of six months to two years.[@traffic] No THC limit is set, and the penalty figures come from legal-press summaries of the schedule rather than the opened schedule itself.[@traffic]
traffic
Border operations in December 2024 seized 1.3 tonnes of hashish, 136 tonnes of khat and about 1.4 million pills, with more than 1,800 arrests.[@spa24] In June 2025 another operation took 4 tonnes of hashish, 180 tonnes of khat and 2,411 arrests; in August 2026 a third took 2.8 tonnes of hashish, 138 tonnes of khat and 1,980 arrests.[@spa25,spa26] These are operation totals, not annual statistics, and no cannabis price data were found.
spa24, spa25, spa26
No public annual arrest total was found. Single border operations reported more than 1,800 arrests in December 2024, 2,411 in June 2025 and 1,980 in August 2026, mostly foreign migrants.[@spa24,spa25,spa26] In 2025 the kingdom executed 356 people, 240 of them for non-lethal drug offences and 98 solely for hashish; 2024 saw 345 executions.[@hrw25] These are all-drug figures except where hashish is named.
spa24, spa25, spa26, hrw25