Malawi countries/mw.yaml
label Unlicensed possession (Regulation 4(a), DDA s19(1)) · treatment criminal · term Possession · fine 500000 · life possible · note Maximum of life imprisonment
label Unlicensed cultivation and related acts (2020 Act s50(1)) · treatment criminal · ter … ons reg 6, DDA s19(1)) · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · fine 500000 · life possible · note Maximum of life imprisonment
Police recorded 952 trafficking cases and seized 36.6 tonnes in 1999 alone.[@pana00] The t … in October 2025,[@fom25] and 15 kg found in a Lilongwe bedroom in February 2026.[@fom26] Destructions continued at scale: over three tonnes seized between September 2024 and August 2025 were burned at Nkhatabay in November 2025 on a magistrate's order,[@nkhta25] and over five tonnes seized from unlawful possessors were torched in Salima in January 2026, unclaimed after six months as the law requires.[@salima26] Growing and packing traditions — remote hillside plots, women cultivating and men selling, flowering tops bound in leaf-wrapped cobs — are described in [chamba](/culture/language/chamba/).
pana00, fom25, fom26, nkhta25, salima26
The Cannabis Regulation Act 2020 puts cultivating, propagating, supplying, possessing and selling cannabis under licences from the Cannabis Regulatory Authority, and import or export under a ministerial permit.[@cra20] Only seed that has been crushed or processed so it cannot germinate falls outside the controlled plant, so viable seed and planting material are lawful only within the licensed medicinal and hemp schemes.[@cra20]
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@cra20,dda]
Road Traffic Act section 128 prohibits driving on a public road under the influence of a drug having a narcotic effect.[@roadtraffic] It also covers occupying the driver's seat with the engine running and sitting beside a learner as the licensed supervisor.[@roadtraffic] Drug-analysis evidence is admissible; police may require blood or urine samples, and refusal can lead to arrest.[@roadtraffic] The statutory text provides up to three years' imprisonment, or a fine or both; injury or death raises the prison ceiling to five years.[@roadtraffic] Section 60 requires licence and permit suspension of at least six months for a first offence, one year for a second and five years for a third or later offence.[@roadtraffic] The numerical concentration rule is for alcohol, not THC.[@roadtraffic] The source's monetary fine amounts were not verified against subsequent revisions and are not presented as current ticket tariffs.
Malawi-Moto — Nkhatabay Police destroy tonnes of Indian hemp (10 Nov 2025) Malawi24 — Malawi, poorest nation, burns billions of kwachas worth of cannabis (28 Jan 2026) 18 unchanged
word Chamba · lang Yao · meaning cannabis; the Yao word for Malawi's local sativa, Malawi Gold · sources duvall19