Cannabis Freedom Index

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Research

Scientific research on cannabis in the country: who studies it, what they found, and what the law allows.

Modern cannabis science began with chemistry done under prohibition: in Israel, Raphael Mechoulam isolated THC in 1964 from hashish supplied by the police. Later work on the plant’s cannabinoids and the body’s own receptors grew from there.[1] Yet because cannabis sits in the strictest treaty schedules, scientists in many countries still need special licences to obtain it, and in some there is no legal route at all.

These sections say who studies cannabis in each country, what they found and what the law allows researchers to do. The map shows where research is open, licensed, restricted to narrow routes or blocked. On the advice of the World Health Organization, the UN moved cannabis out of its most restrictive schedule in 2020.

profiles with this section
33
explained as not applicable
0
not researched yet
187
of 220 places covered
15%

Cannabis research, on the map

Select a country for its section. The interactive map →

OpenBy licenceRestrictedBlockedNot researched yet

Cannabis research: how the 33 researched places divide

187 places have no status yet.

StatusWhat it meansPlaces
By licenceResearchers can grow, import or hold cannabis under a special licence or permit29
RestrictedResearch is limited to narrow routes, such as synthetic cannabinoids or approved medicines, not the plant4

Country by country

The opening of each profile's section; the country's page has it in full, with sources.

CountryCannabis researchWhat the profile says
BhutanAsiaBy licenceSection 18 allows the competent authority to authorise production, import, use or holding of Schedule I substances for medical or scientific research, teaching or forensic work, and the 2026 rules set research authorisations.
CambodiaAsiaBy licenceResearch is one of the four permitted purposes for licensed cultivation, manufacture and supply of controlled drugs; no cannabis research programme was verified beyond the licensing route.
CroatiaEuropeBy licenceDrug-ban exemptions cover medical, veterinary, scientific and teaching use, and the 2019 change allowed domestic medical-cannabis production — but no authorised producer or distributor was on sale by 2025, leaving research…
CzechiaEuropeBy licenceCzech cannabis science goes back to Palacký University in Olomouc, where Zdeněk Krejčí's department reported antibacterial effects of cannabis in 1955, and where the chemist Lumír Hanuš grew and analysed cannabis from the 1970s.
EgyptAfricaBy licenceEgypt has studied hashish since 1957 under the National Center for Social and Criminological Research. Its programme produced the 850-taker prison study: smoking prevalent in 89.4 percent, use social in 82.5 percent, first-time…
GermanyEuropeBy licenceGerman researchers published 260 papers on cannabis in 2025, and 41 clinical trials with a cannabis treatment had been registered in Germany by October 2026.
HungaryEuropeBy licenceHigh-THC research growing is licensed, not outlawed: breeding, research growing and seed production of high-THC hemp are reserved for organisations holding a public health authority licence under Decree 162/2003.
IndonesiaAsiaRestrictedIn June 2025 the National Narcotics Board opened limited cannabis research to selected universities and began a pharmacy study with Udayana University, while insisting this was not legalisation.
Isle of ManEuropeBy licenceResearchers can obtain a GSC licence, separate from the commercial cultivation licence. Research permission can cover indoor male and female plants for breeding and seed production, with measures to stop pollen reaching other…
JamaicaNorth AmericaBy licenceJamaican doctors turned folk knowledge into medicine. The pharmacologist Manley West and the eye surgeon Albert Lockhart of the University of the West Indies noticed that fishermen who drank ganja tea saw better at night, and…
JapanAsiaBy licenceCannabis research needs a health-ministry licence to grow the plant, and the law sets a separate research-grower category.
KuwaitAsiaBy licenceInstitutional research is the only lawful route to the plant: Health Ministry Decision 289/2026 grants eligible institutions two-year permits for controlled-plant medical and scientific research, with seed records, a responsible…
MalaysiaAsiaBy licenceOnly a public officer authorised by the Minister may grow cannabis, for research, educational, experimental or medical purposes; no wider research programme operates.
MonacoEuropeBy licenceResearchers can seek an exemption from the Minister of State for cannabis research or control work under article 32. That permission is separate from ordinary possession or recreational supply.
MontenegroEuropeBy licenceA scientific legal entity may grow hemp under a separate land-registration exception to the permit-and-contract route. No separate research programme, trial or published study was established by the retained sources.
NetherlandsEuropeBy licenceDutch researchers publish over a hundred papers on cannabis a year, 140 in 2025, and 21 clinical trials with a cannabis or cannabinoid treatment had been registered in the country by October 2026.
NigeriaAfricaRestrictedNigerian doctors produced some of Africa’s earliest cannabis psychiatry. Tolani Asuni’s 1964 study argued the plant reached Nigeria during and after the Second World War and described its user base — see the wartime-introduction…
OmanAsiaBy licenceThe only lawful growing route doubles as the research route: article 7 permits growing licences for specified public bodies, colleges and research institutions for medical or scientific purposes.
PolandEuropeBy licenceInstitutional research growing runs through the agriculture minister's research institutes, which may grow medical cannabis with the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspector's permission on permits of up to five years, under security,…
QatarAsiaBy licenceThe only institutional route doubles as the research route: the health minister may license government bodies and recognised research institutes to grow the listed plants or import seeds.
SerbiaEuropeBy licenceList-2 substances, including cannabis, are permitted for research and exceptionally for therapy under legal controls, and the minister can authorise imports of unregistered controlled medicines for named patients through a…
SingaporeAsiaRestrictedSingapore studies cannabis without growing it. In 2018 the National Research Foundation put S$25 million into a five-year synthetic biology programme, one strand of which aimed to make cannabis-derived medicines, mostly CBD, from…
SlovakiaEuropeBy licenceResearch growing needs a health-ministry permit: hemp may be grown for research, and EU varieties aside, permits normally last one year.
SloveniaEuropeBy licenceThe 2025 Medical and Scientific Cannabis Act opens licensed cultivation and processing for medical and research purposes; nothing for adult use was enacted.
South KoreaAsiaBy licenceLicensed academic researchers may grow or import cannabis for research with MFDS approval and reporting. Universities, KIST and the Andong zone do cannabis and CBD work, but no patient clinical trial was verified.
SpainEuropeBy licenceAEMPS lists nine holders of research cultivation authorisations as of 31 July 2026, including the Institute of Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, Phytoplant Research and Trichome Pharma.
SwedenEuropeRestrictedSweden produced the landmark 1987 Lancet study linking heavy cannabis use to schizophrenia: 45,570 conscripts followed for 15 years, with a sixfold risk for those who had used more than fifty times.
SwitzerlandEuropeBy licenceResearchers can seek federal permission for controlled adult-use supply trials, with defined populations, products and evaluation plans.
TaiwanAsiaBy licenceArticle 18 permits possession of controlled drugs for medical, research or training purposes, and the Controlled Drugs Act licenses institutions. No cannabis research programme, licence or clinical trial was found.
TajikistanAsiaBy licenceScientific cultivation of drug-containing plants is reserved for licensed research institutions under the drug law; no wider research programme was verified.
United KingdomEuropeBy licenceBritain ran one of the largest cannabis trials of its era: the MRC-funded CAMS study treated 630 multiple-sclerosis patients at 33 UK centres with oral cannabis extract, THC or placebo, finding no effect on the primary spasticity…
UruguaySouth AmericaBy licenceThe cannabis regulator had granted 14 research licences by 2026, eight to private companies and six to public institutions such as the University of the Republic and the Clemente Estable Institute;
YemenAsiaBy licenceArticle 30 allows government departments and scientific institutes to obtain licences to grow controlled plants for research; this is the only licensed growing route.

References

  1. Wikipedia — Cannabinoid

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