French Guiana
14/100
Not ranked: French overseas department
would rank #59 among countries
French prohibition applies: cannabis use, possession and growing are criminal offences, and the only patient route is the restricted national French medical framework. Herb grown locally and imported is widely available; Cayenne airport checks target cocaine couriers to mainland France.
French overseas department. French Guiana is a french overseas department. French national drug law, including the Code de la santé publique prohibitions, is the applicable regime; there is no French Guiana-specific cannabis statute. See also 🇫🇷 France.
In short all countries →
- Can I carry it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I grow it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I buy it?LimitedOn prescription only
- Can I use it in public?NoNot in public, and even at home the law does not protect it
- What if I'm caught?Fine or prisonUsually a fine; prison is possible
A rough guide read from the scores and the rules below, not legal advice. The details and the exceptions are in each segment: select an answer to jump to it.
Cannabis in French Guiana not part of the score · all 3 datasets ↓
Who uses it
Perhaps 1 in 33
people aged 15–64 (assumed) in French Guiana used cannabis in the past year.
- Past year
- 3.0%
- South America median
- 3%
This site’s estimate: there is no national survey.
Source Past-year cannabis use among people aged 15–64 (assumed). This site's figure: there is no national survey, so the median rate of surveyed countries in South America is applied to people aged 15–64.Survey ages and years vary, and some surveys include children. Rates are not age-standardised; do not compare countries directly.
A median computed on this site from surveyed countries in South America, using UNODC World Drug Report 2026 figures. The whole dataset →
Score breakdown 14/100 · how the scores are made
Illicit use and possession fall under article L3421-1 of the Code de la santé publique: up to one year in prison and a €3,750 fine, with a national fixed-fine procedure for ordinary use cases.[1][2]
| Amount | What happens | Punishment | Fine |
| Ordinary illicit useNational fixed-fine procedure applies to ordinary use cases | CriminalDrug use | Up to 1 year | Up to €3,750 |
Growing cannabis is treated as production of narcotics: up to 20 years imprisonment and a €7.5 million fine, even for a few plants.[3] In practice courts impose far lower sentences for small personal grows.[3]
| Amount | What happens | Punishment | Fine |
| Growing cannabis (production of narcotics)Courts impose far lower sentences for small personal grows | CriminalUnlicensed cultivation | Up to 20 years | Up to €7,500,000 |
Giving cannabis to someone for their personal use is a specific offence with up to five years in prison under the national regime.[3]
Ordinary illicit use is a criminal offence in public or private, with up to one year and €3,750; eligible ordinary-use cases can end through the national fixed-fine process.[1][2] France has punished any drug use with up to a year in prison since 1970. Ordinary use moved into an on-the-spot fine in 2020.
There is no French Guiana-specific patient route; access follows the restricted national French medical framework, limited to patients carried over from the 2021 experiment during the transition to a permanent regime.[4] France's medical cannabis experiment began in 2021.
Context not part of the score · every country, by topic →
There is no legal recreational supply. Cannabis, mostly herb, is widely accessible through local production and imports and remains the most commonly tried illegal drug.[5] Ordinary illicit use is a criminal offence with up to one year in prison and a €3,750 fine.[1]
No French Guiana-specific patient route exists; access follows the restricted national French medical framework.[4]
CBD flower and products under 0.3% THC are lawful to sell under the national French regime.[6] France's top court allowed CBD flower sales in 2022.
Herb is grown locally and imported from neighbouring countries; all of it is outside any legal regime, and growing is a production offence.[5][3]
Herb dominates and sells at identified points of sale in Cayenne and elsewhere; a resin market is growing, supplied from Morocco through Europe, with resin sometimes exchanged for cocaine.[5] The territory is a link in the South American cocaine route to Europe.[5]
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Ordinary illicit use is a criminal offence punishable by up to one year in prison and a €3,750 fine.[1][3]
Driving after using a narcotic is an offence whatever the amount; there is no threshold, as in the rest of France.[7]
Controls at Cayenne's Félix-Éboué airport were reinforced to stop couriers, mostly young Guianese men carrying cocaine to mainland France, and the trafficking networks adapted their methods.[5] No territory-wide cannabis arrest series was found in the reviewed sources.
Use and possession convictions carry up to one year in prison and a €3,750 fine under the national provisions, with convictions recorded under national criminal-record rules.[1]
Taking cannabis into or out of French Guiana 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 French Guiana's embassy before travelling.[8]
General guidance that applies to almost every country, not a check of French Guiana's customs rules.
Datasets not part of the score
What other organisations publish about French Guiana, and where it stands among the countries each one covers. Each dataset has a page of its own, with a world map and every country's figure.
Use
UNODC
Cannabis use
3.04%of people aged 15–64 (assumed)
computed here: the median of surveyed countries in the region, or the figure of the country a territory is part of
Source Survey ages and years vary, and some surveys include children. Rates are not age-standardised; do not compare countries directly.
Society
Our World in Data, World Bank · 2023
Population
293,996people in 2023
Higher than 11% of 196 countriesLowestHighestCEPII
Former colonial rulers
Once ruled by France
Sources hover a number in the text to see its source
- Cited
- 8
- Websites
- 7
- Last reviewed
Most cited
- service-public.gouv.fr2
- cidj.com1
- connexionfrance.com1
- incb.org1
- legifrance.gouv.fr1
- ofdt.fr1
All 8 sources
- Légifrance — Code de la santé publique, article L3421-1, in force 20 August 2026One year and €3,750 for ordinary illicit use of a scheduled narcotic.
- French government Service Public — drug-use penaltiesarchived
- CIDJ — Détention de cannabis, je risque quoi ?archived
- Service-Public.fr — Therapeutic cannabisarchived
- OFDT — Drogues et conduites addictives en Guyane en 2024 (OUDOM, July 2025)Cannabis mainly herb, widely accessible thanks to local production and imports; resin market growing, from Morocco via Europe, exchanged against cocaine; Cayenne airport controls reinforced; regular cannabis use 3.8% (2014).
- The Connexion — French court definitively allows sale of CBD flowers and products
- Observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière — Les infractions (2024 figures)archived
- International Narcotics Control Board — Travellers carrying medicines containing controlled substances