Cabo Verde countries/cv.yaml
Article 20 of Law 78/IV/93 covers small quantities held or acquired for personal use, with up to three months in prison or a fine of up to 30 days.[@law1993,correction1993] It gives no fixed gram threshold.[@law1993] Lesser trafficking under article 6 instead carries one to five years for Table I/II substances.[@law1993] The case described in Constitutional Court ruling 18/2023 involved 15 g and an eighteen-month lesser-trafficking sentence; the defendant disputed that classification.[@tc2023] That case does not make every 15 g possession offence trafficking or establish typical sentencing.
Small cultivation intended for the grower’s own consumption falls under article 20, with up to three months or a fine of up to 30 days; it is not legal home-growing.[@law1993] Other unauthorised cultivation falls under article 3, ordinarily four to twelve years, subject to lesser-trafficking provisions where applicable.[@law1993,correction1993] Article 6 of Decree-Law 92/92 separately permits Health Ministry licences for scientific or teaching cultivation.[@licensing1992] No recreational plant allowance was established.
The statute provides both fines and custody for personal consumption offences.[@law1993] A discretionary article 20 waiver requires minority, no repeat offence and a solemn undertaking before a magistrate, cumulatively.[@law1993,correction1993] Article 22 already allowed conditional sentence suspension for a dependent offender volunt … 20 compulsory-treatment proposal should not be mistaken for the first treatment provision.[@obs2020] One reported eighteen-month lesser-trafficking sentence for 15 g is not a representative sentencing survey; the enforcement rating remains provisional.[@tc2023]
Article 3 covers offering, distributing, transferring or providing controlled drugs to another person, ordinarily four to twelve years for Table I/II substances.[@law1993,correction1993] It provides no general unpaid-gift exception.[@law1993] Article 6 permits a lesser-trafficking band where unlawfulness is considerably reduced, but does not legalise sharing.[@law1993] Article 12 separately addresses inciting or facilitating illicit use.[@law1993]
Use itself is an article 20 offence, punishable by up to three months in prison or a fine of up to 30 days.[@law1993,correction1993] The waiver is discretionary and restricted to a minor meeting all listed conditions, not every first offender.[@law1993] Article 21 protects anonymity and professional confidentiality for people who voluntarily seek health assistance.[@law1993]
No lawful recreational supply route or operating cannabis patient service was established.[@licensing1992] Decree-Law 92/92 provides scientific/teaching cultivation licences and a controlled medicines system; Table II substances require special prescriptions under article 22.[@licensing1992] ERIS identifies cannabis and resin as controlled under Table II-A.[@cosmetics2024] These statutory powers do not establish stocked cannabis medicines or permission for ordinary retail sales.
Decree-Law 92/92 article 6 expressly prohibits cannabis cultivation but permits Health Ministry licences for scientific or teaching purposes within the controlled-medicines system. Its authorisation and manufacturing[@licensing1992] The licensing provisions impose controls on licensed entities; they are not a recreational or general industrial-hemp exemption. Issued but establish no operating medical cannabis production: issued cannabis-growing licences and lawful output volumes were not established.[@licensing1992]
ERIS’s 6 May 2024 circular reiterates a prohibition on cannabis-related preparations and CBD or other cannabinoid ingredients in cosmetics under the framework it describes. It warns that a blank CBD entry in an ingredient inventory is not permission. This cosmetics guidance should not be extrapolated into an unsourced rule for every food, medicine or seed product.
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The limited label reflects a statutory framework, not a verified patient programme. Decree … s authorisations, special prescriptions for Table II substances and pharmacist dispensing.[@licensing1992] ERIS places cannabis and resin in Table II-A.[@cosmetics2024] Current cannabis prescribing practice, issued product authorisations and availability remain unverified. ERIS’s May 2024 circular prohibits cannabis-related preparations and CBD in cosmetics, which is not a patient supply route.[@cosmetics2024]
Articles 16–17 provide forfeiture of controlled substances, relevant equipment and crime proceeds, subject to stated protections for good-faith third parties.[@law1993] Article 19 permits the court to expel a foreign national convicted under the law for no more than fifteen years; expulsion is discretionary, not an automatic outcome in every possession case.[@law1993,correction1993]
The reviewed framework establishesprovides no recreational collective-growing or distribution permission.[@law1993] Personal cultivation remains criminal and article 3 includes transfers to others.[@law1993,correction1993] Article 13 separately penalises operators who allow premises to be used for illicit trafficking or consumption.[@law1993] No claim is made about the prevalence of informal associations.
No recreational visitor purchase route was established.[@law1993] Personal-use custody or fines remain possible under article 20, and foreign offenders can face discretionary expulsion under article 19.[@law1993,correction1993] Decree-Law 92/92 article 30 contains a medical-document rule for travellers carrying Table II/III substances; it does not by itself validate a foreign cannabis recommendation or every cannabis product at the border.[@licensing1992]
Personal-use cultivation remains criminal under article 20, while Decree-Law 92/92 reserves authorised cultivation to scientific or teaching purposes. Growing cuttings has, with no recreational exemption for growing cuttings.[@law1993,licensing1992] The reviewed provisions do not expressly resolve isolated seed possession or seed commerce; grey records that uncertainty rather than a verified permission.
ENACT — Organised Crime Index 2025, Cabo Verde country page The African Roots of Marijuana 7 unchanged
label Small quantity for personal use (article 20) · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison 3 months · note Or a fine of up to 30 days (day-fine units); no gram threshold, label Lesser trafficking (article 6) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · note Table I/II substances where unlawfulness is considerably reduced
label Small cultivation for own consumption (article 20) · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison 3 months · note Or a fine of up to 30 days; not legal home-growing, label Other unauthorised cultivation (article 3) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison min 4 years · prison 12 years · note Lesser-trafficking band may apply
Cannabis is prohibited, but small personal-use amounts fall under a separate three-month or fine-only tier, while trafficking draws heavier multi-year terms.[@law1993] Use persists: cannabis is widely consumed, locally produced and trafficked, with Santiago island a focal point for cultivation and trade, as the 2025 organised-crime index records.[@enact25]
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No industrial-hemp exception was verified: Law 78/IV/93 covers cannabis with no low-THC distinction, and the scientific/teaching licences are not a fibre or food exemption.[@law1993,licensing1992] No lawful cannabis products were identified beyond the cosmetics prohibition on CBD ingredients.[@cosmetics2024]
law1993, licensing1992, cosmetics2024
The earliest known description of a coconut water pipe comes from these islands in 1672, on Portugal's shipping route into an Indian Ocean where sailors had already met such pipes, as that [1672 account](/history/cape-verde-coconut-water-pipe-1672/) records.[@duvall] The [calabash water-pipe tradition](/culture/traditions/the-calabash-water-pipe/) carries the form across the region to this day.[@duvall]
duvall
Cannabis is widely consumed and both locally produced and trafficked; Santiago island, particularly Ribeira Grande and Santa Catarina, is a focal point for cultivation and trade.[@enact25] Moroccan nationals have been linked to cannabis resin shipments through Cabo Verde toward Europe, and hashish oil interceptions point to diversification.[@enact25] Personal use in small quantities is described as tolerated despite the ban.[@enact25]
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