Ecuador
South America
#47 of 196 worldwide
#7 of 12 in South America
The constitution treats use as a health issue, though the possession threshold table was repealed in 2023. Medical cannabis and hemp are legal.
Score breakdown ▏world average
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Possession · 25%2/10adds 5.0 of 25 points
Article 364 of the constitution treats drug use as a health matter and forbids criminalising users. Until November 2023 a threshold table treated up to 10 g of cannabis as personal use; President Noboa repealed it, so there is now no safe amount. A person caught with any quantity must convince police and a judge that it is for their own use.
Personal cultivation · 25%1/10adds 2.5 of 25 points
Growing cannabis with THC for personal use is not authorised. Only non-psychoactive cannabis under 1% THC may be cultivated, under licence.
Punishment & enforcement · 20%3/10adds 6.0 of 20 points
The constitution protects users in principle, but since 2023 enforcement has hardened under an anti-micro-trafficking drive, and small-scale possession cases can lead to pre-trial detention.
Sharing & gifting · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Any supply is trafficking, graded by quantity.
Consumption · 10%2/10adds 2.0 of 10 points
Use itself is not a crime under the constitution, but with the thresholds gone, anyone using in public risks being processed as a small-scale dealer.
Legal access · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
No adult-use source. Low-THC medical and wellness products are sold legally.
More context not part of the score
The agriculture ministry issues several classes of licence for non-psychoactive cannabis and hemp (under 1% THC), which has attracted commercial growers.
Hemp and low-THC products; prescription preparations with tight THC limits.
Medical cannabis was legalised in 2019, on prescription, limited largely to low-THC preparations.
No record if a case is closed as personal use; the risk lies in being charged as a dealer in the first place.
All sources
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