Kuwait countries/kw.yaml
Personal consumption or possession of controlled drugs can bring prisonup to five years, or ten in listed places. The 2025 law distinguishes unpaidUnpaid sharing from traffickingcarries five to ten years. Trafficking, whichimport, production or cultivation for trade can carry death or life imprisonment, and provides rehabilitation options; death is mandatory for personal-use caseslisted aggravations.
label Personal consumption, possession or purchase · treatment criminal · fine 5000 · prison 5 years · note Up to five years and KD5,000; rehabilitation instead of prosecution possible · term Possession, label Personal-use offence in specified places · treatment criminal · fine 10000 · prison 10 years · note Up to ten years and KD10,000 in prisons, schools, treatment centres and other specified places · term Possession, label Providing a controlled drug for consumptionResidual possession or import without paymentpersonal-use or trafficking intent (Article 48) · treatment criminal · fine 10000term Possession · prison min 5 years · prison 10 years · fine 10000 · note FiveUp to ten years and KD10,000; fifteen years and KD5,000–10,000 in listed places
label Personal-use cultivation of a prohibited-plant-table plant · treatment criminal · fine 5000 · prison 3 years · note Up to three years and KD5,000 · term Cultivation, label Cultivation for trafficking · treatment criminal · fine 2000000 · note Death or life imprisonment and KD100,000–2 million, or the seized substances'’ value if higher · death true · life possible · fine min 100000 · term Cultivation
Prosecutors may order up to three months in rehabilitation instead of starting a prosecuti … its testing requirements for driving or weapons licences and marriage procedures.[@law25] A positive test in the marriage procedure cannot itself lead to prosecution.[@law25]
Controlled-drug dealingNo retail or patient supply of cannabis. Only licensed pharmacies may dispense registered controlled medicines, possession and use require the authority specified in the drug law. Unauthorised personal-use and supply offences can bring prisoninstitutional medical or, in specified trafficking cases, death or life imprisonment scientific growing needs a separate permit.[@law25,research26]
law25, research26
Pharmacists may dispense controlled-drug preparations only against the required prescription, and the law limits the time in which a prescription can be filled and prohibits reusing it. Specified drugs and plant materials follow separate schedules and licensing rules.[@law25]
law25
No cannabis-based medicine or patient programme was found. The druggeneral law providesallows licensed doctors to prescribe controlled medical prescribingmedicines on special prescriptions, pharmaceutical manufacturewhich pharmacists must fill within five days and institutional medical or scientific cultivationmay not reuse; that is not a cannabis programme.[@law25] The 2026Institutional medical or scientific cultivation rules require eligible institutions to obtain permits and appointneeds a responsible pharmacist, keep seed and crop records and secure the growing siteHealth Ministry permit under Decision 289/2026.[@research26]
For eligible personal-use cases, prosecutors may order rehabilitation for up to three months instead of starting a prosecution. Breaching treatment; breaching conditions can lead to prosecution; time already spent in the centre is credited if custody or detention is later ordered.[@law25] A foreign prisoner can be deported after sentence, and a drug-trade conviction bars licences under article 18.[@law25]
The drug law allows licensed import of prohibited plants and their seeds for authorised institutional medicalAn adult cannot lawfully keep a cannabis seed or scientific purposescutting to grow at home.[@law25] The 2026 rules require seed quantitiesLicensed institutions may import seeds and grow plants for medical or scientific research, with seed records, a responsible pharmacist, secure storage and growing sites, and supervised destruction of unused crops and seeds when the authorised purpose or licencepermit ends.[@research26]
The retained sources establish noNo separate low-THC hemp or CBD retail regime: cannabis was found. Cannabis plants and seeds sit in the prohibited-plant tableare controlled, and licensing runs through the institutional medical-or-scientific routecultivation is limited to licensed government, with seed records, a responsible pharmacist, secure sitesuniversity and supervised destructionresearch bodies.[@law25,research26] Article 6 exempts plant parts and seeds listed in Table 6, but the schedules were not readable, so a narrow fibre or seed exception cannot be ruled out.[@law25]
No cannabis clubs are known. Unpaid supply of a controlled drug for another person’s consumption carries five to ten years, and managing or preparing a fine. Traffickingplace for drug use carries up to ten years, or fifteen years and specifiedKD50,000–100,000 if paid-supply conduct have separate capital or life-sentence penalties.[@law25]
No legal supply for visitors. Personal possession and consumption can bring prison undercarry the general offencepenalties.[@law25] A separatenarrow rule withholds prosecution on a first detection at an official entry point of specified food, drink or body-care products containing controlled substances for personal use, subject towith confiscation and a written undertaking not to repeat the conduct; repetition can lead to prosecutionit does not legalise plain cannabis possession.[@law25]
The 2025 amended Traffic Law article 38 prohibits driving or attempting to drive under the influence of narcotics, psychotropic substances and other listed substances affecting normal faculties, with no numeric THC limit.[@traffic2025Text] The reproduced amended statute providespenalty is one to two years in prison and KWD1KD1,000–3,000, or either penalty. An accident damaging public or another person’s; property damage raises this to one to three years and KWD2KD2,000–3,000, or either; an accident causingand injury or death bringsto two to five years and KWD2KD2,000–5,000, or either.[@traffic2025Text] The court must withdrawwithdraws the licence for one to three years; on repetition it may order, or three to five years. These are statutory court rangeson repetition, not routine settlement amounts, and stronger penalties under other laws are reserved. Thethe Interior Ministry confirms implementationmay add drug screening to licence medical checks.[@traffic2025Text,law25] The law commenced on 22 April 2025. Its older traffic- violation page still shows the superseded one-year/KWD500 ceiling. Numeric THC limits, drug specimen/confirmation rules and a medical-prescription exception were not established.[@traffic2025Start]
traffic2025Text, traffic2025Start, law25
A report by the anti-drug prosecution counted 2,666 narcotics cases involving 3,554 defendants in 2023, against 2,687 cases the year before. Use; use and addiction accounted for 77.2 per cent of the cases% and trafficking for 22.5 per cent%. Twelve death sentences and 59 life sentences were passed for smuggling or dealing that year, and 42 people died from drug use.[@gn_kw24] Kuwait recorded 3,251 drug cases in 2024 and 2,874 to November 2025, with a 90% conviction rate and $186m of drugs seized.[@mugtama25] The figures cover all drugs, not cannabis alone.[@gn_kw24]
gn_kw24, mugtama25
Times Kuwait — Mid-year drug figures (26 August 2025) Times Kuwait — 100 kg hashish and marijuana from Iran (15 November 2025) Kuwait Times — Life for London air-cargo hashish (4 March 2026) Gulf Daily News — Life for a Salwa flat grow (30 June 2025) Kuwait Times — Indoor cannabis farm raided (5 May 2026) Kuwait Times — 145 kg hashish seizure (12 September 2025) Al-Mujtama — 2025 drug indicators (14 December 2025) 5 unchanged
label Providing a controlled drug for consumption without payment (Article 43) · treatment criminal · term Unpaid supply · prison min 5 years · prison 10 years · fine min 5000 · fine 10000, label Possession, purchase or sale with intent to traffic (Article 43) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · death true · life possible · fine min 50000 · fine 500000 · note Death or life and KD50,000–500,000, or the drugs’ value if higher, label Import, export, production or cultivation for trafficking (Article 42) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · death true · life possible · fine min 100000 · fine 2000000 · note Death or life and KD100,000–2 million, or the drugs’ value if higher, label Aggravated trafficking: repeat, minor, listed place or office (Article 44) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · death true · note Death is mandatory, label Organising a drug gang (Article 45) · treatment criminal · term Organised crime · death true · note Death is mandatory, label Joining or assisting a drug gang (Article 45) · treatment criminal · term Organised crime · life mandatory · fine min 20000 · fine 50000
KWD
label Unlawful consumption, ordinary case (Article 49) · treatment criminal · term Consumption · prison 5 years · fine 5000, label Consumption in a listed place · treatment criminal · term Consumption · prison 10 years · fine 10000 · note Prisons, police stations, rehabilitation centres, places of worship, schools and sports clubs
KWD
Kuwait has no legal cannabis market, and seizures are dominated by hashish rather than herbal cannabis: 959 kg of hashish against 142 kg of marijuana in the first eight months of 2025.[@times25mid] Resin arrives by sea from Iran — a car returning on the Shuwaikh ferry in November 2025 carried more than 100 kg of hashish and marijuana — and in one 2026 case by air cargo from London.[@times25iran,kt26air] Local indoor grows also supply the market: police broke up a 45-plant flat in Salwa in 2025 and a 70-seedling farm in 2026.[@gd25,kt26farm] Networks can be prison-linked: in September 2025 a Central Prison inmate directed a gang caught with 145 kg of hashish.[@kt25hash] No reliable retail price per gram was found, so no price is quoted.
times25mid, times25iran, kt26air, gd25, kt26farm, kt25hash