Curaçao
North America
25/100
Not ranked: Country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands
would rank #28 among countries
Cannabis possession, use, growing and supply remain prohibited. Prosecutors’ guidance calls for confiscation and dismissal in the 0–25 g band, subject to exceptions, and a fine request in the 25–50 g band. The law provides medical exemptions for authorised professionals and lawfully obtained treatment supplies. A proposed medical-cannabis industry was still awaiting parliamentary approval in April 2023.
Country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curaçao is a self-governing country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with its own parliament and criminal law. The Dutch coffeeshop policy does not apply there; the public prosecution service is shared with Sint Maarten and the Caribbean Netherlands. See also 🇳🇱 Netherlands.
In short all countries →
- Can I carry it?LimitedNot a crime, but you can be fined
- Can I grow it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I buy it?LimitedOn prescription only
- Can I use it in public?NoUse itself is an offence
- What if I'm caught?A fineOr a referral to treatment
A rough guide read from the scores below, not legal advice. The details and the exceptions are in each segment: select an answer to jump to it.
- Cannabis users
- about 7,600
- Share aged 15–64
- about 7.1%
This site's figure: there is no national survey, so the median rate of surveyed countries in North America is applied to people aged 15–64.
Source A median computed on this site from surveyed countries in North America, using UNODC World Drug Report 2026 figures. Population from the World Bank, aged 15–64. The whole dataset →Score breakdown ▏world average
Select a segment to show or hide the exact rules and sources. How the scores are made →
Possession · 25%4/10adds 10.0 of 25 points
Possession of cannabis or resin is prohibited. For intentional offences the statute permits life imprisonment, a fixed term up to 24 years, a fine up to NAf 6.25 million, or the fixed term and fine together.[1] Prosecutors’ guidance is much milder: confiscation and a potentially conditional dismissal in the 0–25 g band, and a fine request up to NAf 500 in the 25–50 g band. Exceptions include minors, repeat offending, dealing indications, another offence and specified settings such as carnival parades or workplaces.[2]
Personal cultivation · 25%1/10adds 2.5 of 25 points
Growing any plant of the genus Cannabis is prohibited.[1] Prosecutors assess grow cases individually, considering plant numbers, location, professionalism and involvement.[2] The government may create exemptions through a separate decree, subject to prior parliamentary approval; the ordinance itself sets no personal plant allowance.[1]
Punishment & enforcement · 20%4/10adds 8.0 of 20 points
The prosecution guideline calls for confiscation and dismissal in the 0–25 g band, subject to exceptions; from 50 g upwards it uses half the cocaine/heroin sentencing request.[2] Its general instructions favour partly suspended requests for first offenders who are residents, with a three-year probation period.[2] These are prosecutors’ instructions; the statute retains much higher maximum penalties.[1]
Sharing & gifting · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Consumption · 10%2/10adds 2.0 of 10 points
Legal access · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
The law exempts authorised pharmacists and dispensing doctors handling extracts and tinctures for medical purposes, subject to the applicable medicines rules. It also exempts people who can show that lawfully obtained amounts are needed for their own medical use.[1] Recreational possession and use remain prohibited; the prosecution guideline’s small-quantity dismissal policy does not provide a licensed retail route.[1][2]
References
- Curaçao — Opiumlandsverordening 2024, Publicatieblad 2024 No. 74Articles 2a, 3a, 4–8a, 11 and 17–19; issued 5 July 2024
- Prosecutor-General — Drug prosecution guideline 2018/01Pages 1–3 and 5–6; commencement, requests, cannabis bands, exceptions and cultivation
More context not part of the score
Cannabis cultivation is prohibited. The law provides permissions for specified scientific or medicines-related activities and a separate route for exemptions by decree, requiring prior parliamentary approval.[1] The 2019 bill proposed a dedicated medical-cannabis bureau and grower system; opposition lawmakers were still seeking approval in April 2023.[2][3]
The ordinance controls herbal cannabis and resin separately from extracts and tinctures. Medical professionals’ handling of extracts and tinctures, and lawfully obtained amounts needed for personal treatment, fall within specified exemptions.[1] Public messages promoting controlled-drug sales or supply are prohibited, with an exception for purely medical or scientific information.[1]
Authorised pharmacists and dispensing doctors have medical-purpose exemptions for handling extracts and tinctures, subject to medicines rules. People who establish their need for lawfully obtained personal treatment supplies also have an exemption.[1] The 2019 industry proposal concerned a bureau working with growers and sellers; it remained a bill awaiting approval in the April 2023 reporting.[2][3]
The ordinance provides no recreational club exemption from the cannabis possession and use bans.[1] Prosecutors’ small-quantity dismissal policy excludes cases with signs of dealing.[4]
Unauthorised importation, possession and use remain prohibited.[1] The prosecution guideline’s preference for partly suspended requests concerns resident first offenders; it generally does not seek a probation report for non-residents.[4]
The 2024 replacement law retained the cannabis prohibitions and medical exceptions, added a sales-advertising restriction and provided a route for future exemptions requiring parliamentary approval.[1] The earlier medical-production bill had stalled after two parliamentary discussions, prompting opposition calls for answers in April 2023.[3]
Taking cannabis into or out of Curaçao is a separate offence from possessing it, normally charged as smuggling or trafficking, with far heavier penalties. That holds almost everywhere, including between two places where cannabis is legal.
A prescription or medical card from another country is generally not recognised. Travellers who need a cannabis-based medicine should ask Curaçao's embassy before travelling.[5]
General guidance that applies to almost every country, not a check of Curaçao's customs rules.
References
- Curaçao — Opiumlandsverordening 2024, Publicatieblad 2024 No. 74Articles 2a, 3a, 4–8a, 11 and 17–19; issued 5 July 2024
- Curaçao Chronicle — Curaçao gets special cannabis agency, 18 September 2019
- Curaçao Chronicle — Opposition parties want approval of medical cannabis bill, 7 April 2023
- Prosecutor-General — Drug prosecution guideline 2018/01Pages 1–3 and 5–6; commencement, requests, cannabis bands, exceptions and cultivation
- International Narcotics Control Board — Travellers carrying medicines containing controlled substances
History 7 of 8 checked against a source
Entries per decade
Entries that moved the score Context only
Tightening ✓ Article
Curaçao keeps its cannabis ban and prohibits sales advertising
Curaçao’s replacement drug law kept the bans on cannabis growing, possession and use, and prohibited public messages promoting controlled-drug sales or supply, except purely medical or scientific information. It also gave the government a route to create exemptions by decree, subject to prior parliamentary approval and a 30-day period in which Parliament can request legislation to govern commencement. The law retained medical exceptions for licensed professionals and lawfully obtained personal treatment supplies, and took effect on 6 July, the day after publication.
Debate ✓
Curaçao’s advisers seek clearer rules for future drug exemptions
Curaçao’s Advisory Council asked the government to explain why its replacement drug bill would let it exempt substances, activities or circumstances from existing prohibitions. The council wanted a reasoned explanation with examples, alongside clearer procedures for individual permissions. The final July law kept an exemption power covering cannabis but required the government to seek Parliament’s approval before making such a decree.
Debate ✓
Curaçao opposition presses for the stalled medical cannabis bill
MAN and KEM lawmakers called for approval of Curaçao’s medical-cannabis export bill, according to reporting published on 7 April. KEM’s Michelangelo Martines and MAN’s Giselle McWilliam wanted answers after the proposal had been discussed twice and then stalled following a change of government. The campaign renewed the argument for a cannabis industry first advanced by former minister Suzanne Camelia-Römer in 2018.
Debate ✓
Curaçao proposes an office to oversee a medical cannabis industry
By September 2019, a bill sent to Curaçao’s Parliament proposed a Medicinal Cannabis Curaçao Office to work with growers and sellers. The Advisory Council’s earlier review described a system in which licensed growers would sell their cannabis plants exclusively to the proposed bureau. In April 2023, opposition lawmakers were still pressing for approval after two parliamentary discussions.
Debate ✓ Article
Curaçao’s advisers question financing of a medical cannabis industry
Curaçao’s Advisory Council asked the government to strengthen its medical-cannabis production bill before sending it to Parliament. It found insufficient support for the economic case and asked how the proposed cannabis bureau would finance harvest purchases and recover its money from buyers. By September, local reporting said a bill for that bureau had reached Parliament.
Other law ✓ Article
Curaçao renews guidance to drop most cases involving up to 25 grams
Curaçao’s renewed prosecution guideline directs seizure and a potentially conditional dismissal for cannabis in its 0–25 g band, and a fine request up to NAf 500 in its 25–50 g band. Exceptions cover minors, repeat offending, signs of dealing, another offence and settings such as carnival parades, workplaces or government buildings. The guideline replaced July 2015 instructions and leaves cultivation cases to individual assessment; Curaçao’s later replacement law kept the underlying possession and growing bans.
Other law ✓
Curaçao starts using a replacement drug-control law
The Netherlands Antilles’ replacement Opium Ordinance came into force on 1 June 1964, providing the legal foundation later carried into Curaçao’s own drug law. It replaced an ordinance from July 1929; Curaçao’s later consolidated text prohibited cannabis cultivation, possession and use while retaining medical exceptions. The island replaced that inherited ordinance again in July 2024.
Ban ≈
Curaçao first restricts cannabis
No first law on cannabis is recorded here for Curaçao. The Netherlands banned trade in Indian hemp in 1928, and Curaçao's Opium Ordinance of 1960 listed cannabis, so the first restriction is assumed to fall between those years.
10025−75 points
Datasets not part of the score
What other organisations publish about Curaçao, and where it stands among the countries each one covers. Every file is published in full on the sources page.
Use
UNODC
Cannabis use
7.1%of adults
LowestHigher than 76% of 196 countriesHighest7,600 people · median of surveyed countries in the region, computed here
Society
OpenAlex · 2025
Research on cannabis
19papers per million people
6.4 · 20186.4 · 201913 · 20236.4 · 202419 · 202520182025 LowestHigher than 97% of 176 countriesHighest3 papers in 2025
Pew Research Center · 2020
Most common religion
Christians
Christians · 2010Christians · 202020102020 the largest group · 2020
World Bank · 2024
Income per person
$28,762per person
34,307 · 200035,339 · 200135,436 · 200234,813 · 200334,289 · 200433,652 · 200533,335 · 200633,490 · 200733,795 · 200833,397 · 200933,005 · 201032,704 · 201132,321 · 201231,753 · 201331,129 · 201430,861 · 201530,210 · 201629,729 · 201729,257 · 201828,660 · 201923,670 · 202024,906 · 202126,735 · 202227,618 · 202328,762 · 202420002024 LowestHigher than 66% of 187 countriesHighestat purchasing power parity, 2021 dollars · 2024 · $33,005 in 2010
World Bank · 2017
Development indicators
68.1%use the internet
61.9% · 201668.1% · 201720162017 LowestHigher than 36% of 195 countriesHighest91.3% live in towns · 14.8% aged 65+ · life expectancy 76.4 · 2017
Context
Our World in Data, World Bank · 2025
Population
156,000people in 2025
LowestHigher than 9% of 196 countriesHighest
All sources 4 cited in this profile
- Curaçao — Opiumlandsverordening 2024, Publicatieblad 2024 No. 74Articles 2a, 3a, 4–8a, 11 and 17–19; issued 5 July 2024
- Prosecutor-General — Drug prosecution guideline 2018/01Pages 1–3 and 5–6; commencement, requests, cannabis bands, exceptions and cultivation
- Curaçao Chronicle — Curaçao gets special cannabis agency, 18 September 2019
- Curaçao Chronicle — Opposition parties want approval of medical cannabis bill, 7 April 2023
Last updated: · 4 sources · history: 7 of 8 entries checked