São Tomé and Príncipe countries/st.yaml
label Up to a three-day personal quantity · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison 3 months · note Fines run as day-fines up to 60 days, and courts may excuse an occasional consumer, label Above a three-day personal quantity · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison 1 year · note Fines run as day-fines up to 100 days
Growing cannabis for personal use falls under the same rule as personal possession: up to three months or a 60-day fine, rising to one year or a 100-day fine above a three-day personal quantity.[@code2021] Other unauthorised cultivation falls under trafficking, normally carrying two to twelve years.[@code2021]
There is no legal recreational market. Acquiring or holding up to a three-day personal qua … asional consumer; above that amount the maximum is one year or a 100-day fine.[@code2021] Police still call the seized drug liamba in press reports, as in the July 2025 arrests.[@park2025]
code2021, park2025
UnauthorisedNo licensed cannabis production exists: unauthorised cultivation, production, manufacture, extraction or preparation of cannabis falls under trafficking, normally carrying two to twelve years. Diverting drugs into illicit trade in breach of an authorisationlawful-handling rules carries four to fifteen years.[@code2021]
Table I-C lists cannabis leaves and flowering or fruiting tops, cannabis resin and cannabis oil. These products are covered by the code’s controlled-drug offences.[@code2021]
code2021
Cannabis flower, resin and oil are listed controlled drugs in Table I-C.[@code2021] The Penal Code recognises authorised controlled-drug activities and penalises doctors and pharmacists who prescribe or provide drugs for non-therapeutic purposes.[@code2021] No patient supply route was established.
Visitors face the same personal-use and supply offences.[@code2021] A court may also order a convicted foreign national’s expulsion for up to ten years.[@code2021] British travel advice warns of severe penalties for drug offences and advises against carrying anything through customs for someone else.[@fcdo]
code2021, fcdo
GOV.UK — São Tomé and Príncipe, safety and security
3 unchanged
word Liamba · lang Portuguese (São Tomé) · meaning cannabis; the police-press word for seized cannabis · sources park2025
label Personal growing (three-day quantity tiers) · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison 3 months · note Up to one year above a three-day quantity; day-fines in both bands, label Other unauthorised cultivation (trafficking) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison min 2 years · prison 12 years · note Normal trafficking band
none
No industrial-hemp exception was verified: the Penal Code lists cannabis leaves, flowering tops, resin and oil as controlled drugs with no low-THC distinction, and no hemp production is documented.[@code2021]
code2021
In July 2024 police Operation 971 raided cannabis fields and sales points, detaining seven men and two women for an initial judicial hearing, as that [operation](/history/sao-tome-cannabis-crop-raids-2024/) records.[@park2025] In July 2025 police arrested three men in São Tomé with 30 g of liamba, and judicial authorities imposed bail.[@park2025]
park2025
grey
unclear
illegal
banned
Personal growing falls under the three-day-quantity tiers, not a legal home-grow allowance, and other unauthorised cultivation falls under trafficking.[@code2021] The code does not separately address seed possession or commerce.
code2021