Nepal: split penalty tables, correct the 1987 reservation, add 18 entries

Nepal acceded to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 as amended by the 1972 Protocol on 29 June 1987. The convention lists, but reserved the right to permit temporarily, for non-medical purposes, the use of cannabis and cannabis resin among its controlled drugs and obliges its parties to limit theirthe production, manufacture and trade in them. The reservation had no end date, possession and useso accession did not by itself commit Nepal to medical and scientific purposesthe convention's cannabis ban.

label Use · treatment criminal · term Use · prison 1 month · fine 2000 · note Up to one month or up to 2,000 rupees, label Up to 50 g stored, bought or soldpossessed · treatment criminal · term Storage or sale · prison 3 months · fine 3000, label 50 g to 500 g · treatment criminal · term Storage or … term Storage or sale · prison min 2 years · prison 10 years · fine min 15000 · fine 100000

Sale and distribution sit in the same quantity bands as storage: up to three months or a fine of up to 3,000 rupees for up to 50 grams, and two to ten years plus a fine for 10 kilograms or more.[@ndca] From 50 g upward prison and fine are cumulative, not alternatives.[@ndca]

Use can bring up to one month in prison or a fine of up to 2,000 rupees.[@ndca] During Mah … h and police have often looked the other way, though arrests were announced in 2018.[@ok] A person who undertakes in writing to enter treatment for up to a month, with fortnightly reports, may receive no punishment.[@ndca]

Medical use appears in federal plans.[@b360] The 1976 Act has a paper route: a doctor's recommendation and a licensed shop under section 5, or a special government licence for medicine or research under section 6, but no cannabis medicine or shop exists.[@ndca] Gandaki's 2026 Act is a cultivation framework for medicinal and industrial cannabis, and a … encement notice that section 1(2) requires.[@png] No legal consumer products exist.[@wiki]

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No industrial-hemp exemption was found: the 1976 Act controls cannabis and cultivation is … on licence.[@italy] Gandaki's 2026 framework covers medicinal and industrial cannabis; it sets a THC ceiling but has not commenced and sets no THC limit yet.[@ktm12,png]

The 1976 Act controls the cannabis plantdefinition covers leaves, flowers, resin, fibre and names no seed exceptionextracts but not seeds; bhang seeds are sold openly as food, while sowing them is cultivation and is punished under section 14.[@ndca] Clones are plants, so keeping or trading them falls under the same offence.[@ndca] No seed-sale or clone market was foundSeed trade for planting remains unclear.[@ndca]

The Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act contains no driving offence, and the sources read did not identify a cannabis-specific traffic rule or THC limit.[@ndca] TheTraffic police use SoToxa oral-fluid kits and THC urine tests and have booked drivers, but the Motor Vehicles Act trigger was not verified; the status is leftstays unverified rather than treating a general careless-driving rule as a drug-driving offence.[@okktm_sofoxa]

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Narcotics Control BureauPolice-wide figures for the last full fiscal year2024/25 show 15,768 people arrested in the police110 drug cases and 7,943 arrests, with 51,439 kg of herbal cannabis seized, a record.[@ktm_april26] The Narcotics Control Bureau's anti-trafficking operations nationwide andfor 2025/26 recorded 993 cases registered, with 1,768 arrests and 1,325 people charged; arrests were 5.55 per cent up on 2024/25. Seizures included, with 1,603 kg of cannabis, 204 kg of imported Thai cannabis and 41.5 kg of hashish; those figures cover all drugs and are not comparable with the police-wide series.[@republica_ncb] In June 2025, 6,126 of 29,012 prisoners were held on drug-trafficking charges.[@ktm_prison25]

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Cannabis is grown illegally across Nepal; one campaigner quoted by Nepali Times, in 2026 called it an open secret23 districts: the eastern hills supply herbal cannabis to Bihar, while the central and western hills produce charas for Delhi and overseas markets.[@nt26nepalnews26] Narcotics Control Bureau figures for the last full fiscal year show police seizing 1Police seized 51,603439 kg of herbal cannabis and 41.5 kg of hashishin fiscal 2024/25, and also 2043,332 kg ofin a single Saptari case in July 2026.[@ktm_april26,nepalnews_saptari26] Thai cannabis imported from Thailandhas also made Kathmandu airport a transit route to India.[@republica_ncbok_thai25] One campaigner quoted by Nepali Times called the trade an open secret.[@nt26]

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Kathmandu Post — Nepal police is shooting drug suspects more often (14 April 2026) Kathmandu Post — Drug trafficking surges despite police success claims (27 June 2025) Nepalnews — The inside story of Nepal–Bihar marijuana smuggling (9 June 2026) Nepalnews — Police seize 3,332 kg of marijuana in Saptari (23 July 2026) Onlinekhabar — Thai cannabis turns Kathmandu airport into a transit route (20 May 2025) Kathmandu Post — Traffic police to use SoToxa to check substance use by drivers (6 June 2023) 12 unchanged

NPR

label Up to 50 g · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison 3 months · fine 3000, label 50 g to 500 g · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 1 month · prison 1 year · fine min 1000 · fine 5000, label 500 g to 2 kg · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 6 months · prison 2 years · fine min 2000 · fine 10000, label 2 kg to 10 kg · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 1 year · prison 3 years · fine min 5000 · fine 25000, label 10 kg or more · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 2 years · prison 10 years · fine min 15000 · fine 100000

NPR

label Use · treatment criminal · term Use · prison 1 month · fine 2000 · note Prison or fine; a written treatment undertaking can avoid punishment