Dominican Republic countries/do.yaml
The ordinary personal-possession tier covers up to 20 g of marijuana (5 g of hashish), with six months to two years and a 1,500–2,500 peso fine.[@l5088] Above 20 g and below one pound, the marijuana classification is distributor/seller, with three to ten years.[@l5088] More than one pound of marijuana, or one-quarter pound of hashish, attracts the trafficker tier of five to twenty years.[@l5088] The statute says below and above those boundaries without assigning exact equality to eith … quantity, so even less than 20 g can fall under the distributor/seller penalty.[@law1795] [Law 50-88 graded possession by weight.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/) [A 2026 bill would end prison for users.](/history/dominican-republic-senate-users-bill-2026/)
upto 20 g · treatment criminal · term Simple possession · fine 2500 · fine min 1500 · prison min 6 months · prison 2 years · note Personal-possession tier for up to 20 g of mar … e tier, label Distributor or seller (over 20 g to under one pound) · treatment criminal · term Distributor or seller · prison min 3 years · prison 10 years · note Three to ten years; quantity boundaries exclude exact equality on either tier, label Trafficker (over one pound marijuana, quarter pound hashish) · treatment criminal · term Trafficker · prison min 5 years · prison 20 years · note Five to twenty years
Growing marihuana without authorisation is treated as trafficking. Up to 20 plants brings … o 100 plants three to ten years; larger plantations the trafficker's five to twenty years.[@fc] [Law 50-88 graded growing as trafficking.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/)
label Up to 20 plants · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · fine 10000 · fine min 2000 · prison min 2 years · prison 5 years · note Fine of 2,000 to 10,000 pesos, label Over 20 and up to 100 plants · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison min 3 years · prison 10 years · note Three to ten years, label Larger plantations (trafficker tier) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · prison min 5 years · prison 20 years · note Five to twenty years
Distribution or sale intent makes the holder a distributor/seller regardless of quantity u … ssession tier. Larger quantities can trigger the trafficking classification.[@law1795,fc] [Law 50-88 graded possession by weight.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/) [A 2026 bill would keep distributor terms.](/history/dominican-republic-senate-users-bill-2026/)
Use is prosecuted through possession: Law 50-88 has no separate offence for use, and up to 20 g of marijuana is 'simple possession', with six months to two years in prison.[@fc] [Law 50-88 graded possession by weight.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/)
None. Law 50-88 punishes even simple possession of up to 20 g with prison and treats growing without authorisation as trafficking.[@fc] [Law 50-88 graded possession by weight.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/) [A 2026 bill would end prison for users.](/history/dominican-republic-senate-users-bill-2026/)
There is no legal recreational supply. Personal possession up to 20 g of marijuana (5 g of … small amounts, tourists included, and commentators call the 1988 law obsolete.[@ac,wiki] [Law 50-88 graded possession by weight.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/) [A 2026 bill would end prison for users.](/history/dominican-republic-senate-users-bill-2026/)
NoneNo licensed production operates. Law 50-88 defines production to include sowing, planting and growing controlled-substance plants, and growing marihuana without authorisation is treated as trafficking.[@l5088,fc] [Law 50-88 graded growing as trafficking.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/)
wikil5088, fc
None; foreign medical cannabis cards are not recognised.
wiki
No medical cannabis programme operates. Law 50-88 punishes possession and growing without a patient route, and the sources read give no recognised foreign-card or pharmacy channel.[@l5088,fc] [Law 50-88 graded possession by weight.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/) [A 2026 bill would end prison for users.](/history/dominican-republic-senate-users-bill-2026/)
wikil5088, fc
Long pre-trial detention is common; foreigners are deported after sentence.[@ac] Habeas corpus rulings in drug cases wait out the appeal in custody under the 1990 amendments.[@fc] [Habeas appeals kept suspects in custody from 1990.](/history/dominican-republic-law-35-90-1990/)
ac, fc
Law 50-88 defines marijuana as all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa, growing or not, and "its seeds"; only mature stalks, their fibre and oil or paste made from the seeds are left out.[@l5088] Production is defined to include sowing, planting and growing plants that contain controlled substances.[@l5088] [Law 50-88 graded growing as trafficking.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/)
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@fc] [Law 50-88 graded growing as trafficking.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/)
fc, wiki
There is no legal recreational supply.[@l5088] Personal marijuana possession up to 20 g carries six months to two years in prison; above 20 g and below one pound, three to ten years; above one pound, five to twenty years.[@l5088] Hashish uses lower boundaries: 5 g and one-quarter pound.[@l5088] Fines accompany these prison terms. The statute leaves the exact pound-boundary cases for … an trigger the distributor/seller penalty at any quantity, including below 20 g.[@law1795]
Law 63-17 article 257 prohibits driving under the effects of drugs or controlled substances.[@traffic6317] It specifies a fine of five to ten minimum salaries for the centralised public sector and licence-point deductions determined by regulation, without excluding suspension or cancellation provisions.[@traffic6317] The salary unit must not be replaced with a private-sector minimum wage or a fixed peso tariff.[@traffic6317] Article 260 provides for accredited disposable saliva drug detectors, and article 261 covers testing for substances diminishing driving aptitude.[@traffic6317] Preventive testing under article 262 concerns people intending to drive whose behaviour an … stricted random drug testing. Organic or invasive tests require consent under article 261.[@traffic6317] Refusal is recorded and referred to the traffic court or local justice court.[@traffic6317] A numerical THC cutoff, exact drug-specific point deduction and fixed ban duration were not established in the reviewed provisions.[@traffic6317]
Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office record 6,422 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 6,900 kg in 2023, and 1.7 kg of cannabis resin seized in 2024, against 20.5 kg in 2023.[@unodc_szr] The UN publishes them as kilogram equivalents, and countries count seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@unodc_szr]
The National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD) reported that 49,073 people were arrested for drug-related crimes in 2024, nine in ten of them Dominican.[@eldinero25] The authorities seized 44,348 kg of drugs that year, a record: 37,714 kg of cocaine and 6,377 kg of marijuana.[@eldinero25] The directorate did not say how many of the arrests were for possession or for cannabis.[@eldinero25]
none
No hemp exception operates. Law 50-88 defines marijuana as all parts of the plant, including its seeds, leaving out only mature stalks, fibre and seed oil or paste — no low-THC carve-out — and treats unauthorised growing as trafficking.[@l5088,fc] [Law 50-88 graded growing as trafficking.](/history/dominican-republic-law-50-88-1988/) [Cannabis was first restricted around 1925.](/history/do-first-restriction-estimate/)
l5088, fc