Puerto Rico
North America
14/100
Not ranked: Unincorporated territory
would rank #57 among countries
Unauthorised cannabis possession remains a felony, with probation and other alternatives available in qualifying cases. Medical dispensaries began serving patients in December 2016. The health department counted 110,736 active patients in August 2026.
Unincorporated territory. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, a commonwealth with its own constitution, legislature and criminal law. Federal drug law applies there as in the states. See also 🇺🇸 United States.
In short all countries →
- Can I carry it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I grow it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I buy it?LimitedTolerated shops or clubs, or on prescription
- Can I use it in public?NoUse itself is an offence
- What if I'm caught?Fine or prisonUsually a fine; prison is possible
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
- 99,000
- Share aged 15–64
- 4.88%
People who used cannabis in the past year, from a 2005 survey, applied to today's population aged 15–64.
Source UNODC World Drug Report 2026, annex table 1.2. 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%1/10adds 2.5 of 25 points
Under Article 404 of the Controlled Substances Act (Law 4 of 1971), possessing a controlled substance without a prescription is a felony with a fixed prison term of three years (two to five with mitigating or aggravating circumstances) and a fine of up to $5,000; a repeat conviction brings six years. A first offender may instead be put on probation without a finding of guilt and, if it is completed, have the case dismissed once in a lifetime. After a qualifying treatment assessment and with prosecution consent, a court may also impose a fine of $1,000 to $10,000 and up to six months of community service instead of prison.[1]
Personal cultivation · 25%1/10adds 2.5 of 25 points
Punishment & enforcement · 20%2/10adds 4.0 of 20 points
Possession is still prosecuted as a felony in the Court of First Instance; one 2025 case reached the Court of Appeals over a challenge to the search. About 222 people were convicted under Article 404 in 2022, and a San Juan politician asked the governor in 2024 to pardon those convicted of cannabis possession.[3][4]
Sharing & gifting · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Distributing a controlled substance is a separate offence under the same law, with no exception for sharing without payment.[1]
Consumption · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Legal access · 10%3/10adds 3.0 of 10 points
There is no legal adult-use supply. The medical route requires a recommendation from an authorised doctor and patient identification under the regulated programme. The health department’s August 2026 report counted 110,736 active patients and 59 registered certifying doctors. Dispensaries began serving patients in December 2016; the 2017 law supplied the statutory structure.[2][5][6]
References
- Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto — Ley de Sustancias Controladas de Puerto Rico (Ley 4 de 23 de junio de 1971), revised 2 May 2026
- Puerto Rico — Medical Cannabis Act 42-2017, incorporating Act 15-2021Articles 8–13, 17, 24 (2021 employment protection) and transitional clause; OGP compilation revised 15 April 2024.
- Tribunal de Apelaciones de Puerto Rico — Pueblo v. Torres Latalladi, TA2025CE00959 (22 January 2026)
- Metro Puerto Rico — Piden a Pierluisi indultar a personas convictas por posesión de marihuana (21 April 2024)
- Puerto Rico Department of Health — Medical Cannabis Programme statistics, August 2026Active patients 110,736; certifying doctors 59; conditions on p. 4. Multiple certified conditions per patient.
- Primera Hora — First medical dispensaries open, 30 December 2016
More context not part of the score
The Medical Cannabis Regulatory Board had issued 498 licences for cultivation, transport, research and sale by 2024. All production serves the medical market.[1]
Medical cannabis products sold in licensed dispensaries; smoking is not an approved form of use. Industrial hemp-derived products such as CBD are covered by a 2020 circular letter.[2][1]
The May 2015 executive order directed the health secretary to authorise medical cannabis through the drug law’s procedures. Dispensary sales began in December 2016, followed by the 2017 Medical Cannabis Act. In August 2026, anxiety was certified for 59.34% of active patients, insomnia for 55.14% and chronic pain for 34.81%; patients may be certified for more than one condition.[3][2][4][5]
No cannabis clubs are known. Outside licensed medical dispensaries, distribution is an offence.[6]
There is no adult-use supply. For medical access, article 12 of the 2017 law recognises a nonresident patient’s identification from the relevant jurisdiction for entering a dispensary and possessing cannabis; the programme’s applicable conditions still govern. The law also provides for board rules recognising resident-jurisdiction patient cards.[2]
Registered medical patients who identify themselves to an employer have statutory protection against discrimination, subject to exceptions involving safety, essential duties, federal permissions or funding, and unauthorised workplace use or possession. A 2022 amendment also prevents registered medical use from triggering the disability law’s exclusion for illegal-drug users.[2][7]
Taking cannabis into or out of Puerto Rico 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 Puerto Rico's embassy before travelling.[8]
General guidance that applies to almost every country, not a check of Puerto Rico's customs rules.
References
- Platea — The most treated conditions with medical cannabis in Puerto Rico (18 April 2024)
- Puerto Rico — Medical Cannabis Act 42-2017, incorporating Act 15-2021Articles 8–13, 17, 24 (2021 employment protection) and transitional clause; OGP compilation revised 15 April 2024.
- Puerto Rico — Executive Order 2015-010, 3 May 2015Full three-page signed order; health secretary’s mandate, three-month report and immediate effect.
- Puerto Rico Department of Health — Medical Cannabis Programme statistics, August 2026Active patients 110,736; certifying doctors 59; conditions on p. 4. Multiple certified conditions per patient.
- Primera Hora — First medical dispensaries open, 30 December 2016
- Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto — Ley de Sustancias Controladas de Puerto Rico (Ley 4 de 23 de junio de 1971), revised 2 May 2026
- Puerto Rico — Act 90-2022, patient exception to disability-law exclusionAmendment to Act 44-1985 article 1(f)(3); approved 14 October 2022 (Senate journal corroboration).
- International Narcotics Control Board — Travellers carrying medicines containing controlled substances
History 11 of 11 checked against a source
Score and entries per decade
14 today, from 100 before its first recorded change
This country's score Entries that moved the score Context only
Medical ✓
Puerto Rico removes a disability protection barrier for cannabis patients
Registered medical-cannabis use could no longer by itself exclude a person from Puerto Rico’s disability-protection law through its restriction on illegal-drug users. Lawmakers said the earlier medical and employment reforms had left a gap because federal drug rules still treated cannabis as illegal. The change followed the separate 2021 protections against workplace discrimination.
Medical ✓ Article
Puerto Rico protects registered cannabis patients against job discrimination
Registered medical-cannabis patients who identify themselves to an employer became a protected group in hiring, dismissal and other employment decisions. Employers could still establish exceptions for real safety risks, interference with essential duties, threatened federal permissions or funding, or unauthorised use or possession at work. The amendment filled an employment-protection gap left by the 2017 medical-cannabis law.
Enforcement ✓ Article
Puerto Rico’s appeal court upholds a dispensary closure over its use permit
The Family Dispensary lost its challenge to Bayamón’s order stopping cannabis sales under a permit for essential household goods. Patients had joined the lawsuit after police enforced the closure in March 2017, shortly after the shop began selling medical cannabis. The appeal court upheld the municipality’s authority and $1,500 in legal costs and fees, while rejecting a separate counterclaim tied to patient claims that had been withdrawn.
Medical ✓ Article
Puerto Rico gives its medical cannabis programme a statutory base
Patients using cannabis within the regulated programme gained statutory protection from Puerto Rico criminal and municipal sanctions. The law created a regulatory board, required medical recommendations and patient identification, prohibited smoking and public consumption, and kept sales within authorised dispensaries. It followed the 2015 executive order and dispensary openings in 2016, with transitional licences for businesses adjusting to the new rules.
Medical ✓
Puerto Rico’s first medical dispensaries begin serving patients
The first two medical-cannabis dispensaries opened after the 2015 executive order, reclassification and subsequent licensing work. Governor Alejandro García Padilla visited one of the businesses and reported 1,953 registered patients and 23 licensed companies across the industry. A later court judgment independently records The Family Dispensary beginning sales to authorised patients on that date, before a dispute over its local use permit.
1114+3 points
Medical ✓
Puerto Rico’s governor orders a route to medical cannabis
Governor Alejandro García Padilla directed the health secretary to follow the drug law’s procedures, reclassify cannabis components as appropriate and authorise their medical use. The order argued that patients’ health required distinguishing medical from nonmedical use and required a progress report within three months. Regulations and licensing followed before dispensaries began serving patients in December 2016.
Easing ✓ Article
Puerto Rico cuts personal-possession penalties and offers probation
People possessing drugs for their own use faced one to three years in prison under the original new law, replacing the five-to-twenty-year cannabis penalty. Eligible first offenders could receive probation without a finding of guilt and later have the case dismissed once in their lifetime. The possession rule took effect on 23 June 1971 and benefited people convicted afterwards even when charged under earlier legislation; most other provisions followed after 180 days.
Enforcement ✓
Puerto Rico’s top court keeps a cannabis prosecution dismissed
María Moreno Medina, accused of holding part of a cannabis cigarette in a handbag in Ponce, kept the dismissal of her case because prosecutors filed the formal charge too late. The Supreme Court also explained that the harsher 1959 felony law could not punish conduct alleged to have occurred under the earlier misdemeanor law. The police complaint dated the incident to May 1959 at the Bar El Cocodrilo.
Tightening ✓ Article
Puerto Rico makes cannabis possession a felony carrying five to twenty years
Cannabis possession and use became felonies carrying five to twenty years in prison, with a possible additional fine of up to $20,000, replacing the earlier misdemeanor penalty of six months to two years. The law also prohibited doctors from prescribing cannabis and allowed cultivation only with official permission for tightly supervised industrial purposes. It took effect immediately on approval; the Supreme Court later held that its harsher penalties could not be applied to conduct from before that date.
Other law ✓
Puerto Rico re-enacts its cannabis ban with six months to two years in jail
Growing, importing, possessing, giving away or using cannabis was punishable by six months to two years in jail under the re-enacted cannabis law. The Supreme Court later quoted this rule while explaining that the 1934 statute re-enacted the original 1932 cannabis law. The 1959 narcotics law then replaced the misdemeanor regime with much heavier felony penalties.
Ban ✓
Puerto Rico approves a law banning cannabis growing and trade
Puerto Rico adopted a law to punish cannabis planting, importation, purchase and sale. The Supreme Court later identified it as the original cannabis statute and explained that a separate law in May 1934 re-enacted it. Cannabis remained criminalised through the harsher narcotics law introduced in 1959.
10011−89 points
Datasets not part of the score
What other organisations publish about Puerto Rico, and where it stands among the countries each one covers. Every file is published in full on the sources page.
Use
UNODC · 2005
Cannabis use
4.88%of adults
LowestHigher than 63% of 196 countriesHighest99,000 people · survey 2005 · ages 15–64 · UNODC 2026
Society
OpenAlex · 2025
Research on cannabis
2.1papers per million people
0.3 · 19750.6 · 19790.3 · 19850.3 · 19860.3 · 19900.6 · 19970.3 · 20050.6 · 20060.9 · 20070.3 · 20080.6 · 20090.3 · 20100.9 · 20110.3 · 20131.2 · 20140.3 · 20151.8 · 20161.2 · 20173.3 · 20183.3 · 20193.3 · 20201.2 · 20211.2 · 20224.0 · 20232.4 · 20242.1 · 202519752025 LowestHigher than 65% of 176 countriesHighest7 papers in 2025 · 1 in 1990 · 1 in 2010
CEPII
Former colonial rulers
Once ruled by Spain; United States of America
World Bank · 2025
Government effectiveness
44of 100
78 · 199678 · 199878 · 200078 · 200278 · 200368 · 200477 · 200563 · 200663 · 200763 · 200855 · 200954 · 201054 · 201155 · 201254 · 201357 · 201457 · 201557 · 201642 · 201744 · 201846 · 201943 · 202043 · 202139 · 202244 · 202345 · 202444 · 202519962025 LowestHigher than 34% of 195 countriesHighestestimate -0.42 on a scale of −2.5 to 2.5 · 2025 · 78 in 2000 · 57 in 2015
Transparency International · 2014
Corruption Perceptions Index
63of 100
63 · 201262 · 201363 · 201420122014 LowestHigher than 82% of 178 countriesHighest0 highly corrupt, 100 very clean · 2014
Pew Research Center · 2020
Most common religion
Christians
Christians · 2010Christians · 202020102020 the largest group · 2020
World Bank · 2025
Income per person
$44,603per person
26,739 · 199027,162 · 199128,219 · 199229,282 · 199330,226 · 199431,310 · 199531,677 · 199632,916 · 199734,537 · 199836,217 · 199937,299 · 200039,569 · 200139,880 · 200239,876 · 200343,356 · 200442,556 · 200542,134 · 200641,889 · 200741,358 · 200840,772 · 200940,778 · 201040,973 · 201141,347 · 201241,557 · 201341,594 · 201441,738 · 201541,858 · 201641,480 · 201741,119 · 201841,656 · 201940,171 · 202040,559 · 202142,311 · 202242,838 · 202344,216 · 202444,603 · 202519902025 LowestHigher than 79% of 187 countriesHighestat purchasing power parity, 2021 dollars · 2025 · $26,739 in 1990 · $40,778 in 2010
World Bank · 2022
Development indicators
87.3%use the internet
0% · 19900% · 19940.1% · 19950.3% · 19961.3% · 19972.6% · 19985.3% · 199910.5% · 200015.6% · 200117.5% · 200219.7% · 200322.1% · 200423.4% · 200525.4% · 200627.9% · 200738% · 200841.5% · 200945.3% · 201048% · 201169% · 201269% · 201376.1% · 201463.5% · 201568.6% · 201668.7% · 201770.9% · 201877.7% · 201984.8% · 202187.3% · 202219902022 LowestHigher than 63% of 195 countriesHighest94.1% live in towns · 23.8% aged 65+ · life expectancy 79.4 · higher education 82% · 2022 · 10.5% in 2000 · 45.3% in 2010
Context
OpenStreetMap · 2026
Cannabis shops on the map
56shops mapped
Fewer shopsHigher than 85% of 59 countriesMore shops17 per million people · 2026
GBIF · 2020
Records of the cannabis plant
3dated records
1 · 19332 · 19853 · 202019332020 LowestHigher than 24% of 128 countriesHighest0 more without a date · 1 in 2020
Our World in Data, World Bank · 2020
Population
3,285,874people in 2020
LowestHigher than 32% of 196 countriesHighestClinicalTrials.gov · 2025
Clinical trials of cannabis medicines
7studies so far
1 · 20103 · 20114 · 20206 · 20227 · 202520102025 LowestHigher than 57% of 56 countriesHighest1 started in 2025 · 1 by 2010 · 4 by 2020
All sources 11 cited in this profile
- Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto — Ley de Sustancias Controladas de Puerto Rico (Ley 4 de 23 de junio de 1971), revised 2 May 2026
- Tribunal de Apelaciones de Puerto Rico — Pueblo v. Torres Latalladi, TA2025CE00959 (22 January 2026)
- Metro Puerto Rico — Piden a Pierluisi indultar a personas convictas por posesión de marihuana (21 April 2024)
- Metro Puerto Rico — Continúan las vistas sobre proyecto para despenalizar la marihuana (18 September 2013)
- Platea — The most treated conditions with medical cannabis in Puerto Rico (18 April 2024)
- Wikipedia — Cannabis in Puerto Rico
- Puerto Rico — Medical Cannabis Act 42-2017, incorporating Act 15-2021Articles 8–13, 17, 24 (2021 employment protection) and transitional clause; OGP compilation revised 15 April 2024.
- Puerto Rico — Executive Order 2015-010, 3 May 2015Full three-page signed order; health secretary’s mandate, three-month report and immediate effect.
- Puerto Rico Department of Health — Medical Cannabis Programme statistics, August 2026Active patients 110,736; certifying doctors 59; conditions on p. 4. Multiple certified conditions per patient.
- Primera Hora — First medical dispensaries open, 30 December 2016
- Puerto Rico — Act 90-2022, patient exception to disability-law exclusionAmendment to Act 44-1985 article 1(f)(3); approved 14 October 2022 (Senate journal corroboration).
Last updated: · 11 sources · history: 11 of 11 entries checked