Albania countries/al.yaml
Possession is an offence under the Criminal Code, but the Code has long exempted a small single dose held for personal use, assessed case by case rather than by a fixed gram limit.[@shteg] Anything more is prosecuted, with prison terms of several years.[@shteg]
Unlicensed cultivation is a serious crime — Albania spent years eradicating large illegal plantations, notably the [2014 Lazarat operation](/history/albania-lazarat-operation-2014/).[@shteg] Since July 2023 companies can be licensed to grow for medical and industrial purposes, but by April 2026 no licence had been issued.[@kp,gitoc26]
kp, shteg, gitoc26
The personal-dose exemption protects users in principle; growers and dealers face long sentences, and policing remains heavy after years of anti-cultivation campaigns.[@shteg]
Supply is trafficking.[@shteg]
Use is not separately punished where only a personal dose is involved.[@shteg]
No legal source for consumers; the 2023 law is aimed at export.[@kp,mjb]
There is no legal recreational supply. A small single dose for personal use is exempt, ass … alone is not punished within the dose, but growing and supply are serious crimes, and the [2023 licensing law](/history/albania-medical-2023/) aims at export — with no consumer products and, as of April 2026, no licence issued.[@shteg,kp,mjb,gitoc26]
shteg, kp, mjb, gitoc26
The law passed on 21 July 2023 creates a national cannabis agency that grants 15-year renewable licences to cultivate and process cannabis for medical and industrial use, with products destined for export.[@kp,mjb] Nearly three years later no licence had been issued, despite the framework and cultivation zones being in place.[@gitoc26]
kp, mjb, gitoc26
No legal consumer products.
kp
A conviction carries a criminal record.[@shteg] No spent-conviction or expungement route for cannabis offences was found in the retained sources.
Article 283 of the criminal code punishes selling, offering, giving, receiving, transporti … arcotic plants" with five to ten years in prison, apart from small doses for personal use.[@cmsg] The 2023 law on medical and industrial cannabis allows cultivation only by licensed companies.[@kp]
cmsg, kp
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@kp,shteg]
Policing of the illegal market is aimed at the crop in the field.[@a2n25] Each summer the State Police search all twelve regions together with Italy's Guardia di Finanza, flying more than 50 high-resolution drones and using helicopters where the terrain is too rough, with most.[@a2n25] Most attention ongoes to the highlands of Shkodra, Dukagjini, Kruja and Dibra and onto areas around Tepelena, Skrapar and Vlora. The joint monitoring destroyed 191,000 plants in 2024.[@a2n25] Growers have been moving indoors, into so- called weed houses, and in 2025 a laboratory was set up in Tirana to process the survey data.[@a2n25]
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Possession is an offence under the Criminal Code, which exempts a small single dose held for personal use, assessed case by case rather than by a fixed gram limit.[@shteg]
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime — how cannabis legalization reshaped illicit markets in the Western Balkans (30 April 2026) Wikipedia — Etymology of cannabis (Albanian kanëp) 6 unchanged
label Small single dose for personal use · treatment tolerated · term Personal dose · note Statutory exemption, assessed case by case; no gram limit, label More than a small dose · treatment criminal · term Possession · note Prosecuted; prison terms of several years in practice
label Unlicensed cultivation · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · note Serious crime; eradication campaigns ongoing; tariff not stated in retained sources, label Licensed medical or industrial growing · treatment legal · term Licensed cultivation · note Fifteen-year renewable licences; export-oriented; none issued as of April 2026
standard
No blanket hemp regime was found: industrial growing exists only inside the licensed medical-and-industrial scheme, which is export-oriented and had issued no licence as of April 2026.[@kp,gitoc26]
kp, gitoc26
Albanian has its own form of the ancient word: kanëp, kin to hemp, hanf and konoplja, traced in the atlas entry [cannabis](/culture/language/cannabis/).[@cannabislg] The plant's modern history here is the illicit crop eradicated summer after summer, from [Lazarat in 2014](/history/albania-lazarat-operation-2014/) to the joint drone surveys of 2024–2025.[@shteg,a2n25]
cannabislg, shteg, a2n25
Enforcement is aimed at the crop in the field: the 2024 joint surveys destroyed 191,000 plants, and a year later a Tirana laboratory was set up to process the survey data.[@a2n25] No account of routine user-level arrests was found.
a2n25