Cannabis Freedom Index

Charts

Cannabis (un)freedom in charts

The index's scores and history, drawn. Every chart is rebuilt from the same files as the rest of the site, so it changes when a law does. Each has a link of its own.

The world today

01 · The world since 1860

Prohibition spread in under a century, and has barely receded

The coloured bands are the share of countries in each band of the index, year by year; the line is the world average score on the same 0–100 scale. Switch to population to see the share of the world's people.

Rebuilt from the recorded changes, so it is only as complete as that list. The colours show the share of countries, or of people, in each band; the line is the world average score on the same 0–100 scale. The population view uses each year's population.

Click a year to read it in the history. Play the years on the map → The rankings as they stood in 1961 →

02 · Every country the same size

Every country the same size: 140 of 196 are under prohibition or worse

A map where every country is one square, in roughly its place, so that Malta counts as much as Russia. Coloured by band; move the year to watch the colour drain away after 1900 and come back in patches since 2000.

Each country's score at the end of the chosen year, rebuilt from its history; squares placed from the centre of each country's shape on the world map. Hover a square for the country; click it for its profile.

The full map → The rankings →

03 · Where the users live

47% of about 235 million people who use cannabis, counted country by country here, live where it is under prohibition

Each rectangle is a country, sized by how many adults used cannabis in the past year and coloured by its band. Prohibition does not keep the users away; it decides what happens to them.

Each country's latest survey rate, applied to a World Bank population of the same age band. Where that band cuts through an age group, or the survey age was not recorded, the count is approximate; the second case uses ages 15–64. Countries with no survey take this site's median of surveyed countries in the same region. These country figures add up to about 235 million people. The UNODC World Drug Report 2026 puts the world total at 256 million cannabis users in 2024. The share above is of this site's sum. 195 countries. About the dataset.

Users on the map → Share of adults →

04 · Recreational and medical

54 of the 92 countries with medical cannabis still ban it for everyone else

Every country in one grid: down, what the law says about adults using cannabis; across, what it says about medical use. The larger the circle, the more countries.

Medical: LegalMedical: LimitedMedical: None
Legal633
Partly legal / tolerated431
Decriminalized11116
Illegal34771
Death penalty–423

The recreational and medical status of each country's profile. Hover a circle for its countries.

Recreational law on the map → Medical law on the map →

05 · The sharpest borders

Walk from South Africa into Zimbabwe and the score falls from 49 to 9: the sharpest borders on Earth

The 16 land borders where the cannabis law changes most, out of 338. Each row is one border: the stricter country on the left, the freer on the right, each dot at its score on one scale from 0 to 60. On 10 borders, one side is legal with limits or freer and the other under prohibition; on 167, both sides are in the same band.

  1. 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe🇿🇦 South Africa
  2. 🇳🇦 Namibia🇿🇦 South Africa
  3. 🇸🇿 Eswatini🇿🇦 South Africa
  4. 🇲🇿 Mozambique🇿🇦 South Africa
  5. 🇱🇸 Lesotho🇿🇦 South Africa
  6. 🇧🇼 Botswana🇿🇦 South Africa
  7. 🇸🇰 Slovakia🇨🇿 Czechia
  8. 🇵🇱 Poland🇨🇿 Czechia
  9. 🇧🇷 Brazil🇺🇾 Uruguay
  10. 🇵🇱 Poland🇩🇪 Germany
  11. 🇫🇷 France🇩🇪 Germany
  12. 🇵🇦 Panama🇨🇴 Colombia
  13. 🇦🇷 Argentina🇺🇾 Uruguay
  14. 🇻🇪 Venezuela🇨🇴 Colombia
  15. 🇲🇾 Malaysia🇹🇭 Thailand
  16. 🇩🇰 Denmark🇩🇪 Germany

Neighbours are countries whose shapes on the site's world map (Natural Earth, 1:50m) touch; sea borders do not count. Hover a row for both scores; click a country for its profile.

Compare two countries → Visitors and foreigners on the map →

How prohibition spread

06 · Every country, every year

Since 1860, the typical country has spent an estimated 81 years under cannabis prohibition

One thin stripe for each of the 196 countries, one year at a time from 1860, coloured by its band. The freest countries today are at the top. 186 fall below 15 points in at least one snapshot. Counts include both endpoints, 1860 and 2026, and both prohibition bands.

19251961
1875190019251950197520002025

Each country's score at the end of each year, rebuilt from its history, as in the yearly data. These are reconstructed scores, including estimated dates and assumed baselines. A regional or provincial rule stays off the national line until a law covers the whole country. Hover a stripe for its country and year; click it for the country's history.

Play the years on the map → Download the yearly scores →

07 · The first restrictions

Among 148 countries with dated first restrictions, the middle half falls between 1921 and 1938

48 countries with unknown first-restriction dates are left out. Each dot is a country, placed at the year of its first recorded rule on cannabis and coloured by its score today. The middle year is 1930. Some came under a colonial power's law before they were countries.

Europe
North America
South America
Africa
Asia
Oceania
187519001925195019752000

The first scored entry of each country in the history; 2 older ones are drawn at 1850, and 48 countries with no known date are left out. Hover a dot for the law; click it for the country's history.

Every first ban and ban → The 1920s → The 1960s →

08 · The waves of law

47% of the tightenings came between 1920 and 1961; 75% of the easings since 2000

Each bar is one year: below the line, recorded changes that made the law harsher; above it, those that eased it. 276 tightenings and 188 easings since 1860.

EasedTightened
1925 Geneva convention1961 Single Convention2012 Colorado, Washington
18801900192019401960198020002020

From the 464 dated, scored entries in the history; estimated first bans are left out. Click a year to read its changes.

Every ban → Every legalisation → The 1930s →

09 · Prohibition and empire

29 of the 51 former colonies of the United Kingdom had a rule on cannabis before it made one at home

Only former colonies with a dated first restriction are counted here. For each former colonial power, a row of those colonies, each placed at the year of its first recorded rule on cannabis and coloured by its score today; the black line is the year the ruler first restricted cannabis at home. Many of these first rules were the ruler's own law, made for the colony, and stayed on the books after independence.

United Kingdom51 colonies · 29 before it
1928
France23 colonies · 4 before it
1916
Russia15 colonies · 0 before it
1934
Türkiye13 colonies · 10 before it
1933
Spain12 colonies · 4 before it
1928
187519001925195019752000

Colonial rulers from CEPII — GeoDist, country file (geo_cepii), Mayer and Zignago (2011); first restrictions from the history, as in chart 07. Powers with at least five former colonies with a dated first rule. A country ruled by two powers appears in both rows. About the dataset.

Colonial law in the history → Every first ban →

10 · What the history is about

The 2020s have the most recorded history entries

Every dated entry in the history, laws and raids, rulings and reports, treaties and books, counted by decade and kind. The wider the stream, the more entries we have recorded. These are topics, not counts of laws becoming stricter or more lenient. The 2020s are not over.

1860s1880s1900s1920s1940s1960s1980s2000s2020s

Bans and tightening 719Enforcement 222Easing and legalisation 266Medical and hemp 348Debate and culture 499Treaties and other law 963

All 3,017 dated entries of the history since 1860, scored or not. Click a decade to read it.

Raids and enforcement → Medical cannabis → Treaties →

The way back

11 · How countries moved

Of the 151 countries under prohibition in 1961, 113 still are

Every country, followed through four years: 1900, 1961, 2000, 2026. Each column stacks the countries by band, the freest on top; each ribbon carries the countries that moved from one band to another, or stayed. Hover a ribbon for its countries.

1900196120002026
184426Legal with limits 6Tolerant 21Restrictive 29Prohibition 99Severe prohibition 41

Scores at the end of each year, rebuilt from the history; today's is the current score. The 1900 column counts a country with no rule yet as free.

The rankings in 1961 → In 2000 →

12 · From prohibition to the top

12 of today's 15 freest countries were under prohibition in 1961

For each of the 15 countries with the highest score today: the grey dot is its score at the end of 1961, the year the UN Single Convention asked every country to ban cannabis; the arrow runs to its score now.

Scores at the end of each year, rebuilt from each country's history, as in the yearly data. A score of 100 means no rule on cannabis had been recorded yet. Hover a row for the changes since 1961; click it for the country's history.

All rankings → Compare countries →

13 · Regions over time

Every region fell to prohibition; North America has come furthest back

The average score of each region's countries since 1860, with the world average in grey behind it.

Each country counts the same; click a region for its rankings. Europe 45, North America 23, South America 12, Africa 54, Asia 48, Oceania 14 countries.

14 · How the scores spread

A world that started at 100 now piles up near 10

How the 196 countries' scores were spread out in each year: the higher the ridge, the more countries had that score. In 1860 almost every country sat at 100, with no rule on cannabis; by 1961 the mass had moved to the left. The small rise on the right since is the reforms.

0255075100

Score

Each country's score at the end of the year, smoothed over about 3.5 points. Hover a year for its average; click it for the rankings as they stood then.

The rankings in 1961 → How the score is made →

15 · When opinion moved first

Americans who want cannabis legal rose from 12% in 1969 to 70% in 2023; the US score went from 7 to 34

Two lines on one scale of 0 to 100. The green line: the share of American adults who tell Gallup that "the use of marijuana should be made legal". The plain line: the score of the United States on this index, year by year. Opinion passed half in 2013; the law has moved far less. The marks are the changes in the US history that moved its score.

0255075100
Say it should be legalUS score
197019801990200020102020

Gallup — "Grassroots Support for Legalizing Marijuana Hits Record 70%" (8 November 2023), trend 1969–2023; the US score as in the yearly data. Hover a dot for a poll, a mark for a change in the law; click a mark for its story.

The US history → The states of the US →

What the law allows

16 · Six parts of freedom

Freedom comes in parts: the score of every country, taken apart into its six

Each column is a country, the freest on the left; each row is one part of the score, coloured from red (0) to green (10). Read across a row to see which freedoms come first: 32 countries score 4 or more on punishment & enforcement, 3 on sharing & gifting.

Possession
Personal cultivation
Punishment & enforcement
Sharing & gifting
Consumption
Legal access
Freest196 countries by score →Strictest

The six parts of the score, each from 0 to 10, as on each country's profile; how they are scored.

Possession on the map → Growing → Access →

17 · The shape of freedom

The 12 freest countries draw 9 different shapes: being free means different things

The six parts of the score of the 12 freest countries, each drawn as a shape: the further out a corner, the freer that part. The dotted shape is the world average. Some shapes repeat: neighbours that wrote the same law draw the same figure.

↑ Possession↗ Personal cultivation↘ Punishment & enforcement↓ Sharing & gifting↙ Consumption↖ Legal access

The parts of each score, 0 to 10, as on the profiles. Hover a shape for its numbers; click it for the country.

All rankings → Compare any countries →

18 · Buy it or grow it

Legal to grow is not legal to buy: 9 countries treat growing far more gently than buying, 1 the other way round

Two parts of each country's score, each from 0 to 10. Across: whether adults can get cannabis from a shop, a club or a pharmacy. Up: whether they may grow their own. Each bubble holds the countries with the same pair, and its colour is their average band. Top left are the countries that leave growing to people; bottom right, those that sell it but keep the plant itself under the state.

0246
Grow, not buyBuy, not growCanada3South Africa3GermanyColombia4NetherlandsUnited States3276Italy22483Australia2445
0246

Access: buying, clubs and pharmacies, 0–10. Up: growing your own, 0–10

The access and cultivation parts of each country's score, as on its profile; how the parts are scored. A far gentler treatment means three points or more apart: South Africa, Czechia, Colombia, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Luxembourg; the other way: Netherlands. Hover a bubble for its countries.

Growing on the map → Access on the map → Cannabis clubs →

19 · Who the police record

Türkiye records 129 offences of cannabis use or possession for every 1,000 people who use it; Malta, 0.3

How often the law reaches the people who use cannabis: offences of using or possessing cannabis for one's own use that the police record in a year, divided by the number of adults who used it in the past year. Cannabis only, and only use or possession: not dealing or growing for sale, and not other drugs. An offence is not a conviction: depending on the country it may end in a fine, a caution, treatment or a criminal case, and some countries count offenders rather than offences. A 451-fold gap, with laws on paper that often look alike.

  1. 🇹🇷 Türkiye129
  2. 🇪🇸 Spain72
  3. 🇧🇪 Belgium65
  4. 🇦🇹 Austria52
  5. 🇬🇷 Greece49
  6. 🇸🇮 Slovenia37
  7. 🇱🇺 Luxembourg35
  8. 🇵🇹 Portugal35
  9. 🇭🇷 Croatia28
  10. 🇭🇺 Hungary22
  11. 🇩🇪 Germany14
  12. 🇨🇿 Czechia12
  13. 🇨🇾 Cyprus11
  14. 🇱🇹 Lithuania8.5
  15. 🇮🇹 Italy7.2
  16. 🇸🇰 Slovakia1.2
  17. 🇲🇹 Malta0.3

Offences: EUDA — Statistical Bulletin 2026, drug law offences, cannabis, use (table DLO-03-2-0), latest year since 2020. Users: the UNODC estimate of adults who used cannabis in the past year. Bars coloured by the country's band. Countries record and define offences differently, so read the order, not the decimals. About the dataset.

Offences on the map → Possession arrests worldwide →

20 · Punish or treat

Punish or treat: in 15 of 17 European countries, the police record more cannabis offences than people enter treatment for cannabis

Each dot is a country, both figures per 1,000 people who use cannabis. Across: offences of cannabis use or possession the police record. Up: people who enter drug treatment mainly for cannabis. Above the diagonal a country treats more than it records; below it, it records more than it treats. Some of those in treatment were sent there by a court. Both scales rise tenfold at each line.

0.11101001,000
Treats more than it punishesPunishes more than it treatsGermanyMaltaItalyBelgiumSloveniaCroatiaLithuaniaSlovakiaTürkiyeHungary
0.11101001,000

Offences of cannabis use or possession per 1,000 people who use it

Offences: EUDA — Statistical Bulletin 2026, drug law offences, cannabis, use (table DLO-03-2-0), latest year since 2020. Treatment: EUDA — Statistical Bulletin 2026, treatment demand, all entrants by main drug (table TDI-0005). Users: the UNODC survey figures. Countries count both differently; read the pattern, not the decimals.

Treatment on the map → Offences on the map →

The law and use

21 · Use and the law

Where the law is milder, more people say they use cannabis: 10.3% against 3.0%

Each dot is a country, in the column of its band, at the share of adults who used cannabis in the past year. The bar is each band's middle value. Countries often eased the law where use was already common, and use is more readily admitted where it is legal, so this shows no cause.

0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%
1.7%3.0%6.2%10.3%10.3%
Severe prohibition30 countriesProhibition68 countriesRestrictive28 countriesTolerant21 countriesLegal with limits6 countries

Past-year use among adults from the UNODC, the latest survey of each country; 153 countries with a survey, estimates left out.

Use on the map → Use among young people →

23 · Easy to get

Where the law is harsher, cannabis is harder to get: 24.8% of 15–16-year-olds call it easy to get under prohibition, 30.0% elsewhere

Each dot is a European country in the 2024 ESPAD school survey: across, its cannabis score; up, the share of students aged 15 to 16 who say cannabis would be fairly or very easy to get. Germany, Denmark, Slovenia top the list at about 41%, under laws that differ.

ESPAD Report 2024 — Results from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, table 3b; 36 countries; r = 0.41. About the dataset.

Easy to get, on the map → Young people in the history →

24 · What flows beneath

Sewage tells what surveys don't: United States' cities flush out 36 times as much cannabis as Türkiye's

Each dot is a country: across, its cannabis score; up, THC-COOH, the substance the body makes from cannabis, measured in city sewage for a week, in milligrams a day per 1,000 people, latest year since 2020. The scale rises tenfold at each line. It measures what is used, not what people admit, though not how many use it; one city may stand for a whole country.

EUDA — Drugs in municipal wastewater in Europe, source data (2025), tables 1 and 2; 27 countries; cities averaged by the people each plant serves. About the dataset.

Wastewater on the map → What surveys say → Seizures on the map →

25 · Alcohol and cannabis

Alcohol is normal, cannabis is criminal: in 23 countries people drink 8 litres of pure alcohol a year or more, and cannabis is banned

Each dot is a country: across, the litres of pure alcohol drunk a year per person aged 15 or over (the WHO's estimate); up, its cannabis score. The shaded corner holds the heavy-drinking countries where cannabis is under prohibition.

0204060
024681012141618

Litres of pure alcohol a year per person aged 15+

Our World in Data — Total alcohol consumption per capita (litres of pure alcohol), from the WHO Global Health Observatory, latest year since 2015; 187 countries. About the dataset.

Alcohol on the map → Cannabis use on the map →

Markets and money

26 · The price of prohibition

Across 24 countries, cannabis price and the score show little correlation (r = -0.18)

Each dot is a European country: across, its cannabis score; up, the typical street price of a gram of herb in the latest year reported. The observations come from different years since 2018 and show an association across countries; they cannot isolate the effect of the law on price.

EUDA — Statistical Bulletin 2026, price, purity and potency, retail price of cannabis herb and resin, mean (tables PPP-02-1-1-2-3 and PPP-02-1-1-1-3); 24 countries with a price since 2018; r = -0.18. About the dataset.

Prices on the map → Potency on the map →

27 · One gram, how much work?

On the minimum wage, a gram of cannabis costs 241 minutes of work in Malta and 20 in Netherlands

The street price of a gram of herb, divided by what the national minimum wage pays for an hour of full-time work (a month's wage over 173 hours). The bar's colour is the country's band: prices follow wages and markets more than the law.

  1. 🇲🇹 Malta241 min
  2. 🇪🇪 Estonia235 min
  3. 🇬🇷 Greece228 min
  4. 🇨🇾 Cyprus218 min
  5. 🇧🇬 Bulgaria138 min
  6. 🇹🇷 Türkiye135 min
  7. 🇸🇰 Slovakia125 min
  8. 🇭🇺 Hungary124 min
  9. 🇵🇱 Poland107 min
  10. 🇱🇹 Lithuania99 min
  11. 🇱🇻 Latvia93 min
  12. 🇮🇪 Ireland87 min
  13. 🇨🇿 Czechia79 min
  14. 🇵🇹 Portugal51 min
  15. 🇱🇺 Luxembourg50 min
  16. 🇪🇸 Spain46 min
  17. 🇩🇪 Germany44 min
  18. 🇧🇪 Belgium44 min
  19. 🇸🇮 Slovenia35 min
  20. 🇭🇷 Croatia30 min
  21. 🇳🇱 Netherlands20 min

Prices: EUDA — Statistical Bulletin 2026, price, purity and potency, retail price of cannabis herb and resin, mean (tables PPP-02-1-1-2-3 and PPP-02-1-1-1-3), latest year since 2018. Wages: Eurostat — Monthly minimum wages, bi-annual data (earn_mw_cur), in euros, January of the latest year. Countries without a national minimum wage, such as Austria, Italy and Sweden, are left out. About the wage data.

Prices on the map → Minimum wages on the map →

28 · THC for a euro

Stronger herb, dearer gram: a euro still buys about 13 mg of THC, as in 2002

In Europe, herb went from about 5.2% THC to 11.0%, and a gram from €4.84 to €8.39, so the amount of the drug a euro buys has hardly changed. The bold line is the middle of the countries reporting both figures each year, first and last three years averaged for the headline; the faint lines are the countries.

0102030
200420082012201620202024

Milligrams of THC a euro buys, in herb

European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) figures for the per cent THC in herb and its street price per gram; a gram at 10% THC holds 100 mg. Potency and prices.

Potency on the map → Prices on the map →

29 · From friends to shops

In Canada, buying from friends fell from 60% to 15% of users after legalisation; legal shops rose to 72%

Each column is a year of the Canadian Cannabis Survey: the usual source of cannabis of people who used it in the past year. Legal sales began in October 2018, after that year's survey; illegal sellers fell from 28% to 3%.

Legal store or websiteGrew their ownFriends and familyOtherIllegal seller

Health Canada — Cannabis use (non-medical) in Canada, Canadian Cannabis Survey, figure 3 (usual source). About the dataset.

Canada's history → The Cannabis Act of 2018 →

30 · The state as merchant

As legal buying rose to 72%, Canada's governments came to take C$2.5 billion a year from cannabis

Two panels on one timeline. Above, the share of people who use cannabis who usually buy it legally, and who get it from friends and family. Below, what the provinces' cannabis authorities earned plus the excise and sales taxes, by fiscal year from April; Statistics Canada's series starts in 2021. The two moved together; the taxes did not cause the shift.

0%25%50%75%
Legal
0$1bn$2bn
2018201920202021202220232024

Health Canada — Cannabis use (non-medical) in Canada, Canadian Cannabis Survey, figure 3 (usual source); Statistics Canada — Table 10-10-0165-01, Net income of cannabis authorities and government revenue from the sale of cannabis, in Canadian dollars. About the revenue data.

Canada's profile → Every legalisation →

31 · Criminalising a crop

16 of the 28 countries that farm hemp ban cannabis for adults; they grow 66% of it

The same plant, grown for fibre and seed on 114,000 hectares, is a crime when it is grown to smoke. Each bar is a country's hemp fields in the latest year reported, on a scale where each step is ten times the last; the colour is its law for adults.

  1. 🇫🇷 France22,960
  2. 🇰🇵 North Korea22,080
  3. 🇨🇳 China18,811
  4. 🇨🇦 Canada14,500
  5. 🇺🇸 United States7,630
  6. 🇷🇺 Russia6,357
  7. 🇩🇪 Germany4,800
  8. 🇨🇱 Chile4,614
  9. 🇳🇱 Netherlands3,370
  10. 🇺🇦 Ukraine1,500
  11. 🇦🇺 Australia1,200
  12. 🇵🇱 Poland1,050
  13. 🇸🇪 Sweden880
  14. 🇱🇹 Lithuania780
  15. 🇹🇷 Türkiye721
  16. 🇦🇹 Austria550
  17. 🇧🇪 Belgium500
  18. 🇷🇴 Romania460
  19. 🇮🇹 Italy340
  20. 🇮🇷 Iran198
  21. 🇨🇿 Czechia140
  22. 🇭🇺 Hungary110
  23. 🇸🇰 Slovakia70
  24. 🇪🇸 Spain50
  25. 🇬🇷 Greece40
  26. 🇮🇪 Ireland40
  27. 🇰🇷 South Korea11
  28. 🇯🇵 Japan1

LegalPartly legal / toleratedDecriminalizedIllegalDeath penalty

FAOSTAT — Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL), hemp fibre and hempseed; hectares of hemp, latest year since 2019. About the dataset.

Hemp on the map → Hemp in the history →

Politics and society

32 · The law and the people

In Canada, 79% don't call using cannabis immoral; in 5 more countries at least 40% don't, yet the law stays strict

Each dot is one of the 25 countries in a 2025 Pew survey: across, the share of adults who say using marijuana is morally acceptable or not a moral issue; up, its cannabis score. Top right, the law and opinion are both relaxed; bottom right, people have moved on and the law has not.

0204060
0%20%40%60%80%

Say using marijuana is acceptable or not a moral issue

Pew Research Center — In 25-country survey, Americans especially likely to view fellow citizens as morally bad (5 March 2026); surveyed January to May 2025. About the dataset.

The survey on the map → Our own survey →

33 · One-issue parties

A party for one issue: 22 parties founded to legalise cannabis in 9 countries

Political parties founded to legalise cannabis, as Wikidata records them: a dot where each was founded, a line while it lasted. Wikidata is far from complete: countries with such parties may be missing.

🇦🇺 Australia
🇳🇿 New Zealand
🇺🇸 United States
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇨🇦 Canada
🇩🇰 Denmark
🇪🇸 Spain
🇿🇦 South Africa
🇫🇮 Finland
1990200020102020

Wikidata — political parties whose name or ideology mentions cannabis, marijuana or hemp; parties without a recorded founding year are left off the timeline. Click a dot for its Wikidata entry. About the dataset.

Debates and campaigns in the history →

34 · Faith and the law

Where Muslims are the largest religious group, no country scores above 21

Each dot is a country, in the row of its largest religious group (Pew's 2020 estimate) and placed along the row by its cannabis score. The bar is each group's middle. Religion is one force among many: colonial law, wealth and the year a country met the drug treaties all play a part.

No religion9 countries · middle 9.5
Christian111 countries · middle 12.0
Jewish1 countries · middle 25.0
Buddhist8 countries · middle 8.3
Hindu3 countries · middle 12.0
Muslim51 countries · middle 4.5
015254060

Pew Research Center — Global religious composition estimates 2010 and 2020, most common religion, via Our World in Data; the score as on the rankings. Groups with no country in the lead are left out. About the dataset.

Recreational law, with the death penalty → The culture atlas →

35 · Freedom and cannabis freedom

Freedom in general predicts cannabis freedom moderately (r = 0.53)

Each dot is a country: across, its score in the Human Freedom Index; up, its cannabis score. The line is the best straight fit. The countries furthest above it are freer for cannabis than their general freedom would suggest; those furthest below, less free.

Cato Institute and Fraser Institute — The Human Freedom Index 2025, data for 2023; 164 countries scored by both. About the dataset. The cannabis scale is cut at 70: no country scores higher.

The Human Freedom Index on the map → Civil liberties since 1900 →

36 · Corruption and the law

The cleaner the state, the milder the cannabis law: severe prohibition sits where corruption scores 33 of 100, milder laws at 57

Each dot is a country: across, Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean); up, its cannabis score. Where police and courts are thought corrupt, a harsh law also gives officials something to sell: a blind eye.

0204060
020406080100

Corruption Perceptions Index: 0 highly corrupt, 100 very clean

Transparency International — Corruption Perceptions Index, via Our World in Data, latest year; 178 countries; r = 0.41. About the dataset.

Corruption on the map → Enforcement on the map →

37 · Can a strong state stop it?

How capable a state is says little about how much cannabis its people use (r = 0.28)

Each dot is a country: across, the World Bank's measure of government effectiveness, 0 to 100; up, the share of adults who used cannabis in the past year; colour, its band. Even the strongest states do not keep use down: among the most effective ones, 16 under prohibition and 13 with milder laws sit across the same range. Richer countries also survey more, and people there admit use more readily.

0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%
020406080100

Government effectiveness, World Bank, 0–100

World Bank — Worldwide Governance Indicators, government effectiveness (GOV_WGI_GE.EST and GOV_WGI_GE.SC), latest year; past-year use from the UNODC, estimates left out; 152 countries. Survey years differ from country to country.

Government effectiveness on the map → Use on the map →

Science, words and attention

38 · Medicine on trial

Medicine on trial: Israel tests cannabis medicines most per person, United States most of all (972 studies)

Registered clinical studies of cannabis, CBD, THC and cannabinoid medicines, 56 countries. Left: the studies that started each year, counted once for each country with a site. Right: the 15 countries of over a million people with the most per million people, coloured by band.

ClinicalTrials.gov — registered studies with a cannabis or cannabinoid intervention, API v2; a study with sites in several countries counts in each, and studies not yet started are left out. Bars: studies per million people, all years. About the dataset.

Trials on the map → Medical law on the map → Medical cannabis in the history →

39 · Researching the forbidden plant

Countries in the band legal with limits publish 20 times as much cannabis research per person as those under severe prohibition

Each dot is a country of over a million people, in the column of its band, at the number of scientific papers on cannabis it published a year, per million people, 2021–2025. The scale rises tenfold at each line. Rich countries publish more of everything, and many legalised for other reasons, so this is no proof that prohibition stifles science.

0.010.1110100
0.20.21.72.74.0
Severe prohibition34 countriesProhibition72 countriesRestrictive21 countriesTolerant15 countriesLegal with limits5 countries

OpenAlex — works mentioning cannabis, marijuana, marihuana or cannabinoids in their title or abstract, by author country; papers counted by the country of their authors. About the dataset.

Research on the map → Culture and science in the history →

40 · The words for it

In 1900, English books named hemp 426 times as often as marijuana; marijuana overtook it in 1967

How often printed books named the plant and the drug, each language on its own scale, 1800 to 2022, smoothed over five years. Green is the old word for the crop (hemp, Hanf, chanvre, canapa, cáñamo, конопля); blue is cannabis, orange marijuana, red hashish. The crop faded from print as the drug arrived.

English180019002022
German180019002022
French180019002022
Spanish180019002022
Italian180019002022
Russian180019002022

The plant: hemp, Hanf, chanvre …CannabisMarijuanaHashish

Google Books Ngram Viewer — yearly frequency of the names of cannabis in printed books, 1800–2022, six language corpora; occurrences per billion words, all spellings of a word summed. "Hemp" also means rope and cloth; the scanned books are not a random sample of what was printed. About the dataset.

Words for cannabis in the culture atlas → Hemp in the history →

41 · When a country looked it up

When Thailand's law moved, its people looked it up: 16 times the usual readers of the cannabis article in June 2022

Monthly readers of the Wikipedia article on cannabis in 26 languages spoken mainly in one country, each line on its own scale; the ticks are that country's changes in the law. Curiosity spikes when the law is in the news, and fades.

201520202026

Wikimedia pageviews API — monthly views by users of the article on cannabis as a drug, by language edition; people only, not bots. German is also read in Austria and Switzerland, Dutch in Belgium. Green ticks eased the law, red ones tightened it. About the dataset.

Every legalisation → The 2020s →

42 · In the news

The United States' press talks about cannabis most: 5 times the share in the United Kingdom's news in 2025

Of all the online news GDELT monitors from each country's own sites, the share of articles that mention cannabis or marijuana in 2025, the 20 highest of 147 countries. Beside each, its share year by year since 2017. Attention, not opinion: a crackdown makes news as much as a reform. Across the 99 countries with any measurable share, attention and the score go together with r = 0.30.

  1. 🇺🇸 United States0.121%
  2. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom0.022%
  3. 🇲🇽 Mexico0.017%
  4. 🇨🇦 Canada0.013%
  5. 🇪🇸 Spain0.012%
  6. 🇹🇷 Türkiye0.009%
  7. 🇫🇷 France0.009%
  8. 🇦🇺 Australia0.009%
  9. 🇩🇪 Germany0.008%
  10. 🇮🇳 India0.007%
  11. 🇨🇴 Colombia0.004%
  12. 🇮🇪 Ireland0.004%
  13. 🇷🇸 Serbia0.004%
  14. 🇨🇳 China0.004%
  15. 🇧🇬 Bulgaria0.004%
  16. 🇮🇩 Indonesia0.004%
  17. 🇧🇩 Bangladesh0.003%
  18. 🇨🇱 Chile0.002%
  19. 🇵🇱 Poland0.002%
  20. 🇳🇬 Nigeria0.002%

The GDELT Project — DOC 2.0 API, share of online news articles mentioning cannabis or marijuana, by the country of the source; years with fewer than 200 days of data left out. About the dataset.

News attention on the map → Wikipedia readers →

Everything together

43 · What goes with freedom

Across the world, research papers per person goes with cannabis freedom most closely (r = 0.53); in fewer countries, opinion that using marijuana is not immoral does even more (r = 0.76)

How closely each of 33 measures moves with the cannabis score across the countries that have it: 1 would mean they rise together exactly, −1 that one falls as the other rises, 0 no link at all. A yes-or-no measure, such as Muslims being the largest religious group, counts 1 for yes. A link is not a cause, and many of these measures move with each other; those marked Europe cover few countries. Linked bars open the matching chart or map.

  1. Freedom and the state
  2. Human Freedom Index 164+0.53
  3. Civil liberties 174+0.47
  4. Clean public sector (corruption index) 178+0.41
  5. Government effectiveness 195+0.41
  6. Wealth and development
  7. Research papers per person (log) 147+0.53
  8. Aged 65 or over 195+0.45
  9. Income per person (log) 187+0.36
  10. People using the internet 189+0.33
  11. Life expectancy 195+0.32
  12. Enrolled in higher education 155+0.30
  13. Living in towns and cities 195+0.18
  14. Use and drugs
  15. Cannabis in wastewater (log) 27+0.67
  16. Adults who use cannabis 153+0.50
  17. Alcohol drunk per person 187+0.45
  18. Students who have tried it (Europe) 36+0.42
  19. Students who find it easy to get (Europe) 36+0.41
  20. Teenagers who use cannabis (past year) 37+0.03
  21. Markets and enforcement
  22. Cannabis shops mapped per person (log) 59+0.49
  23. Clinical trials per person (log) 56+0.47
  24. Cannabis seized per person (log) 160+0.26
  25. Treatment entrants who came for cannabis (Europe) 29+0.14
  26. Police contact for drug possession per person 101+0.10
  27. THC in herb (Europe) 23+0.09
  28. Price of a gram of herb (Europe) 24−0.18
  29. Culture and history
  30. Opinion that using marijuana is not immoral 25+0.76
  31. Christians are the largest group 183+0.35
  32. Cannabis in the news (log) 99+0.30
  33. No religion is the largest group 183+0.13
  34. Once ruled by Britain 191+0.05
  35. Year of the first rule on cannabis 148+0.03
  36. Once ruled by France 191−0.11
  37. Years under prohibition since 1860 196−0.37
  38. Muslims are the largest group 183−0.42

Pearson's correlation between each measure and the cannabis score, over the countries with both figures, at least 20; the latest year of each. Measures marked log are on a log scale. Hover a bar for how many countries it covers.

Income on the map → All the datasets →

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