Ecuador's Assembly admits a citizens' cannabis bill

Ecuador’s National Assembly admitted a citizens’ cannabis proposal on 7 April 2026, allowing its supporters to begin the next stage of a formal popular initiative. The proposal sought to permit personal cultivation and sales through shops regulated by the state.

An unusually broad vote

The Assembly accepted the initiative by 142 votes out of 151 members. It had been presented by social and cannabis organisations under the title Iniciativa Popular Normativa para la Regulación Integral del Cannabis.

Admission was not the same as passing the proposal. It recognised that the initiative could proceed through Ecuador’s citizen-law process. The text still needed public backing before legislators would be required to debate it as a bill.

The signature stage

Supporters next had to collect at least 35,000 signatures. Ecuador’s electoral council would verify them, and only after that step would the proposal return to the National Assembly. The legislature would then have three months to conduct a formal debate.

That sequence left several possible stopping points. Failure to collect or verify enough signatures would keep it from returning to the Assembly, while admission and verified signatures would still not guarantee legislative approval.

What supporters proposed

The initiative combined two changes: cultivation for personal use and a system of state-regulated sales. Its backers described regulation as a public-health measure and a way to reduce the market controlled by organised crime.

The Associated Press report placed the proposal against Ecuador’s earlier drug reforms. It said scientific cultivation was decriminalised in 2011, possession of up to 10 grams was permitted in 2013, and medicinal cannabis use was decriminalised in 2019. Even so, it reported that personal consumption and cultivation remained penalised when the initiative was admitted.

The 2026 proposal therefore addressed both how an adult might obtain cannabis and whether that person could grow it. Neither change took effect with the Assembly’s procedural vote.

In the index

Admission of the initiative did not change Ecuador’s scores. Growing for personal use and regulated adult sales were still proposals, and the supporters first had to complete the signature-and-verification stage before a formal legislative debate.^[1]