Mongolia: life sentence, medical route and 6 history entries

Mongolia’s first restricts cannabis restriction, estimated 1925–1986

No first domesticdated pre-1986 Mongolian cannabis prohibition has been established for Mongolialaw was found. The earliest verified restriction is the 1986 Criminal Code, which banned cultivating Indian hemp and punished possession and sale. The first restriction is therefore dated as an estimate within 1925–1986; earlier codes were not available online, and the 1925 date is a modelling estimatewindow start, not a verified Mongolian law or treaty accession. The international conventions do not establish when Mongolia first restricted cannabis domestically.

Mongolia — Criminal Code 1986, articles 254–255 Wikipedia — International Opium Convention

1925, 1986

true

2024-09-1312

Police stopped two men aged 32 and 33 in Ulaanbaatar’s Songinokhairkhan district on 12 September 2024 with about 17 kg of cannabis plants. The case was cited under Article 20.7 of the Criminal Code; no verdict was reported. It was one of the few cannabis-specific seizures reported that year.

Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Law on Infringement taking effect on 1 January 2024 raised penalties for drug driving while intoxicated, including narcotic intoxication, especially with a cancelled licence, and added licence suspensionsheavier penalties for fatal crashes. The change was part of a wider road-safety package, not a cannabis mainly raised the first-specific law. The offence remains impairment-based, withtime alcohol penalty; no THC blood limit was created, and the drug-specific first-offence sanction is not clearly stated in the consolidated text.

Unauthorised acquisition or storage without a selling purpose can bring one to five years of travel restriction or imprisonment. Sale-related conduct carries two to eight years; organised criminal groups face a separate, higher rangetwelve to twenty years or life.

label Giving to another person without selling purpose (Article 20.7(1)) · treatment crimi … criminal group · treatment criminal · term Sale · prison min 12 years · prison 20 years · note Or life imprisonmentpossible, 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 · fine min 5400000 · fine 27000000

None foundNo legal source for adults. Narcotic drugs are restricted by the 2002 narcotics control law and the Criminal Code,; the law allows licensed medical and academic use but no medicalcannabis medicine, patient programme or hemp exceptionlicence was verifiedfound.[@l2002,cc_mn]

nonemedical

No licensedThe 2002 law provides licences for the manufacture and sale of narcotic drugs and raw materials for medical and research use, but no cannabis production is documented. Manufacture needs a licence from the pharmaceuticals authority and is otherwise prohibitedor product was found.[@l2002]

No cannabis-based medicine is registered and no patient programme is documentedwas found. The 2002 law restricts narcotic drugsallows licensed medical and the code sets noacademic institutions to use controlled drugs for treatment, analysis or research, so a medical route forexists on paper but no cannabis product has been approved.[@l2002,cc_mn]

l2002, cc_mn

The 2002 narcotics control law counts planting, collecting and harvesting plants with narc … es narcotic drugs by reference to the 1961 convention and does not mention seeds.[@l2002] A revised narcotics law submitted to parliament in March 2026 would expressly include seeds in the definition of a narcotic plant; it was still pending on 28 October 2026.[@draft2026]

l2002, draft2026

Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office record 117 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 122 kg in 2023; no 2025 kilogram figure has been published.[@unodc_szr] In September 2024 police stopped two men in Ulaanbaatar with about 17 kg of … ntries count seizures differently, so the figures are not directly comparable.[@unodc_szr]

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; the consolidated text states that sanction expressly for refusing the test carries, and the same penaltydrug-specific first-offence line is not clearly stated.[@infringement] The Criminal Code adds heavier penalties where drug driving causes seriou … ore deaths or death while intoxicated.[@cc_mn] There is no THC blood limit.[@infringement]

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] … an illicit drug.[@diplomat25] The figures cover all drugs, not cannabis alone.[@xinhua24]

Mongolia — revised narcotics law submitted to parliament, 18 March 2026 12 unchanged

MNT