Panama countries/pa.yaml
Recreational possession is illegal. Small amounts for personal use are often dealt with by a fine, a security measure or referral to treatment, but imprisonment remains possible and foreigners can be deported.[@cl] [A separate small-possession penalty began in 2008.](/history/panama-personal-possession-code-2008/) [Penalties were recast in 1986.](/history/panama-drug-law-penal-revision-1986/)
Cultivation is a crime; only licensed medical producers may grow.[@hs,cl] [A man got 80 months for 12 plants in 2023.](/history/panama-los-santos-cultivation-2023/) [The 1986 revision recast penalties.](/history/panama-drug-law-penal-revision-1986/)
Fines or treatment for small amounts in many cases, prison for larger amounts and trafficking.[@cl] [A separate small-possession penalty began in 2008.](/history/panama-personal-possession-code-2008/)
Supply is trafficking.[@cl] [Penalties were recast in 1986.](/history/panama-drug-law-penal-revision-1986/)
Recreational use is prohibited.[@cl] [A Canal Zone committee found little harm in 1926.](/history/panama-canal-zone-committee-1926/)
No adult-use source. Law 242 created a medical framework in 2021, but the ministry still prohibited cannabis-product sales in July 2023.[@sales2023,register2026] A specialist pharmacy opened in January 2026; the current drug-directorate register lists CBD products, without establishing an available THC medicine route.[@pharmacy2026,register2026] [Sales stayed prohibited in 2023.](/history/panama-sales-still-prohibited-2023/) [The first pharmacy opened in 2026.](/history/panama-first-cannabis-pharmacy-2026/) [Patient registration was set out in 2026.](/history/panama-patient-registration-2026/)
There is no legal recreational supply. Small personal amounts are often met with a fine, a … orted.[@cl] Growing and supply stay criminal outside licensed medical production.[@hs,cl] [A separate small-possession penalty began in 2008.](/history/panama-personal-possession-code-2008) [A Canal Zone committee found little harm in 1926.](/history/panama-canal-zone-committee-1926/)
Law 242 of October 2021 — the first medical cannabis law in Central America — and its regulations created a national directorate that issues a limited number of production licences.[@hs,ed] [Medical cannabis became law in 2021.](/history/panama-medical-2021/) [Regulations followed in 2022.](/history/panama-medical-regulations-2022/)
The drug directorate lists Cannapharma CBD products dated 22 January 2026. That listing does not establish retail availability of controlled THC medicines.
register2026
Executive Decree 6 of April 2025 revised the 2021 framework.[@decree2025] In June 2026 the ministry approved patient and companion forms: a qualified doctor certifies treatment, the ministry verifies registration, and an approved patient receives a card for authorised pharmacies.[@registration2026] The announcement said the forms would be available shortly.[@registration2026] The drug directorate lists Cannapharma CBD products dated 22 January 2026; that listing does not establish retail availability of controlled THC medicines.[@register2026] [Medical cannabis became law in 2021.](/history/panama-medical-2021/) [The first pharmacy opened in 2026.](/history/panama-first-cannabis-pharmacy-2026/) [Patient registration was set out in 2026.](/history/panama-patient-registration-2026/)
decree2025, registration2026, register2026
A drug conviction is a criminal record; foreigners risk deportation.[@cl] [Penalties were recast in 1986.](/history/panama-drug-law-penal-revision-1986/)
The Penal Code punishes sowing, growing or keeping the seeds of plants from which drugs are made.[@mp23] In July 2023 a man in Los Santos was sentenced to 80 months for "cultivation and custody of seeds and plants of marijuana" under Article 314, after police found 12 plants and 279 seeds.[@mp23] Licensed medical cannabis producers work under a separate law.[@hs] [A man got 80 months for 12 plants in 2023.](/history/panama-los-santos-cultivation-2023/)
mp23, hs
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@hs,cl] [Penalties were recast in 1986.](/history/panama-drug-law-penal-revision-1986/)
There is no legal recreational supply for residents or visitors.[@registration2026,register2026] The medical framework requires certification and approved registration for controlled medicines; a pharmacy selling CBD does not establish access to THC products.[@registration2026,register2026] [Patient registration was set out in 2026.](/history/panama-patient-registration-2026/)
Traffic Regulation articles 142–143 prohibit driving under the effects of narcotics and provide for licence retention and removal of the vehicle when intoxication is established.[@traffic640] The transport authority's published offence table still directs drug-influenced driving to articles 251–252, rather than the ordinary fixed-fine rows.[@trafficlookup] Article 251's published schedule provides B/.150 and three months' licence suspension for the first offence, with higher fines and longer suspensions for repetition.[@traffic640] Where intoxication is aggravated by a crash, damage to another person's property or injury … B/.1,000 and a one-year suspension; the third such offence brings definitive cancellation.[@traffic640] Seminars or talks are also specified.[@traffic640] The 2025 amendment is recorded as changing articles 241 and 243, rather than these intoxication schedules.[@trafficamendments] No numerical THC cutoff or prescribed-cannabis exception was established in the reviewed provisions; alcohol concentration limits must not be substituted for a cannabis allowance.
Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office record 24,290 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 33,610 kg in 2023.[@unodc_szr] The UN publishes them as kilogram equivalents, and countries count seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@unodc_szr]
The Ministry of Public Security reported that in the first six months of 2024 it carried o … d 181 people for trafficking and 1,730 for micro-trafficking, meaning small-scale selling.[@pamerica24] The figures are not split by drug.[@pamerica24]
Wikipedia — Cannabis in Panama 14 unchanged
label Small amounts for personal use · treatment criminal · term Personal possession · note Often a fine, a security measure or referral to treatment; imprisonment remains possible
label Unauthorised cultivation (article 314) · treatment criminal · term Unlawful cultivation · note 80 months' imprisonment in the reported 2023 Los Santos case (12 plants, 279 seeds)
word Canyac · lang Panamanian Spanish · meaning local name recorded in the 1935 Judicial Register · atlas canyac · sources wikipa
none
No hemp exception operates. Growing, even of seeds, is punishable under the Penal Code outside licensed medical production, and the sources read establish no low-THC carve-out.[@mp23,hs] [A man got 80 months for 12 plants in 2023.](/history/panama-los-santos-cultivation-2023/)
mp23, hs
Panama argued about cannabis early. After an American seaman was jailed for a year in 1926 for smoking cannabis cigarettes, an official Canal Zone committee studied 17 subjects and found only minor effects, recommending against special legislation — advice the US Army revisited in 1933.[@wikipa] A decade later the courts had their own word for it: the 1935 Judicial Register calls cannabis "commonly known locally as Canyac or Kan Jac", and the name is kept in the atlas as [Canyac](/culture/language/canyac/).[@wikipa] [A Canal Zone committee found little harm in 1926.](/history/panama-canal-zone-committee-1926/) [Panama called cannabis Canyac in 1935.](/history/panama-local-name-1935/)
wikipa