Mongolia countries/mn.yaml
Article 20.7(1), as amended in 2020, punishes unlawful preparation, storage, giving to ano … ntity exemption. A separate administrative penalty for consumption alone was not verified.[@cc_mn]
label Unlawful preparation, storage, giving or acquisition without selling purpose (Article 20.7(1)) · treatment criminal · term Illegal use · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · note Travel restriction or imprisonment; no small-quantity exemption
Article 20.10 punishes unauthorised growing of plants supplying narcotic raw materials wit … an organised criminal group. The provision establishes no personal home-growing allowance.[@cc_mn]
label Unauthorised growing of narcotic-raw-material plants (Article 20.10) · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · note Travel restriction or imprisonment; no personal home-growing allowance, label Growing by an organised criminal group · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 5 years · prison 12 years
The Criminal Code permits travel restriction instead of imprisonment for Article 20.7(1) allows travel restriction instead of imprisonment for conduct without a selling purpose. The; the statute alone does not establish how often courts choose that alternative.[@cc_mn] Police recorded 405 drug crimes and 228 suspects in 2024, and 551 crimes and 417 suspects in 2025, with most cases in Ulaanbaatar.[@xinhua24,xinhua26] A nightclub campaign in July 2025 tested 1,043 people positive for an illicit drug.[@diplomat25]
cc_mn, xinhua24, xinhua26, diplomat25
Giving drugs to another person without a selling purpose falls within Article 20.7(1), car … ith a fine, one to five years of travel restriction, or imprisonment in the ordinary case.[@cc_mn]
label Giving to another person without selling purpose (Article 20.7(1)) · treatment criminal · term Giving · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · note Travel restriction or imprisonment, label Sale-related conduct (Article 20.7(2)) · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 2 years · prison 8 years, label Persistent or cross-border conduct · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 5 years · prison 12 years, label Organised criminal group · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 12 years · prison 20 years · note Or life imprisonment, label Providing premises for drug use (Article 20.8) · treatment criminal · term Providing premises · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · note Fine and/or travel restriction or imprisonment in the ordinary case
Article 8 of the narcotics control law prohibits use outside authorised purposes.[@l2002] Criminal Code Article 20.7 lists acts including preparation, storage, giving and acquisition; its title alonementions illegal use, but the operative list does not establish thatmake consumption itself carries the possession sentencea separate crime.[@cc_mn] The separate administrative treatment of use was not verifiedLaw on Infringement punishes public intoxication with a MNT 100,000 fine or compulsory training and 7–30 days' detention; a person found with drugs can also face Article 20.7(1).[@infringement]
l2002, cc_mn, infringement
None found. Narcotic drugs are restricted by the narcotics control law and Criminal Code, and no medical or hemp exception was verified.[@l2002,cc_mn]
cc_mn, l2002
A criminal case brings a record and social stigma.[@vice]
The 2002 narcotics control law counts planting, collecting and harvesting plants with narcotic effect as manufacture, which needs a licence from the pharmaceuticals authority and is otherwise prohibited.[@l2002] It defines narcotic drugs by reference to the 1961 convention and does not mention seeds.[@l2002]
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@cc_mn]
No lawful recreational supply route was established. Article 20.7(1) criminalises unauthorised preparation, storage, giving or acquisition of prohibited narcotic drugs without a selling purpose.[@cc_mn]
Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office record 117 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 122 kg in 2023.[@unodc_szr] In September 2024 police stopped two men in Ulaanbaatar with about 17 kg of cannabis plants.[@forgotten24] No cannabis-specific arrest series is published; the national figures cover all drugs.[@xinhua24] The UN publishes them as kilogram equivalents, and countries count seizures differently, so the figures are not directly comparable across borders.[@unodc_szr]
unodc_szr, forgotten24, xinhua24
Mongolia — Law on Infringement 2017 Xinhua — Mongolia reports 405 drug-related crimes in 2024 (27 January 2025) Xinhua — Mongolia reports 551 drug-related crimes in 2025 (5 February 2026) The Diplomat — Mongolia's new challenge: illegal drugs (29 July 2025) Forgotten Prisoner — Mongolia: two men stopped with 17 kg of cannabis plants (13 September 2024) Монгол хэлний их тайлбар толь — ОЛС (Mongolian Great Explanatory Dictionary) 6 unchanged
none
No legal hemp category or THC ceiling. The 2002 law counts planting, harvesting and cultivating plants with narcotic effect as manufacture, and prohibits production outside licensed medical or research purposes; no hemp licensing route was found.[@l2002] Hemp was traditionally grown for rope and cloth, but the modern law makes no fibre exception.[@ols_dict,l2002]
l2002, ols_dict
impairment
The Law on Infringement punishes driving while intoxicated with a one-year licence suspension and a MNT 400,000 fine, or 7–30 days' detention; refusing the test carries the same penalty.[@infringement] The Criminal Code adds heavier penalties where drug driving causes serious harm or death, up to two to eight years for two or more deaths or death while intoxicated.[@cc_mn] There is no THC blood limit.[@infringement]
infringement, cc_mn
Police recorded 405 drug crimes and 228 suspects in 2024, up 13 per cent on 2023; 198 people were indicted and 87.2 per cent of cases were in Ulaanbaatar.[@xinhua24] In 2025 they recorded 551 crimes and 417 arrests, up 21.6 per cent.[@xinhua26] A July 2025 nightclub campaign tested 1,043 people positive for an illicit drug.[@diplomat25] The figures cover all drugs, not cannabis alone.[@xinhua24]
xinhua24, xinhua26, diplomat25
Cannabis is called [ols](/culture/language/ols/), the same word as rope or cordage, reflecting the plant's traditional use for fibre.[@ols_dict] Hemp was grown for rope and cloth and the plant grows wild, but the modern law treats it as a narcotic with no hemp exception.[@l2002,ols_dict] There is no public cannabis culture; enforcement focuses on users and small seizures.[@xinhua24]
ols_dict, l2002, xinhua24