The story · written by opus-5.5,
For seven years Georgia had the most unusual cannabis law in its region, and it had been written by judges. In July 2025 parliament took most of it back.
What the court built
From 2006 Georgia ran a zero-tolerance policy of mass street drug testing. The Constitutional Court dismantled it in four rulings: no prison for possessing up to 70 g (2015), none for buying small amounts or growing for oneself (2016), no criminal penalty for use (2017) and no fine either (2018).
Parliament confined lawful use to adults of 21 at home. Buying, selling and growing stayed illegal, so the cannabis a Georgian could lawfully smoke could not be lawfully obtained.
What parliament changed
The amendments, proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and adopted on 2 July 2025, delete the separate cannabis article the court had worked on and put marijuana under the general narcotics offence.
| Dried cannabis | Buying or possessing |
|---|---|
| Up to 5 g | Fine; a repeat offence, up to 1 year in prison |
| 5 to 70 g | Up to 6 years |
| 70 to 250 g | 5 to 8 years |
| Over 250 g | Up to 20 years or life |
Growing has a new article with two to six years in prison at the top. Archil Gorduladze, who presented the bill, said openly that it was written to get around the court, whose rulings the party called “completely incompatible with the reality of 2025”. The rules on consumption were left alone.
What came with it
The same package lets police hide the identity of cooperating witnesses at any stage of a case. Saba Brachveli, a lawyer with the Open Society Foundation, said it was “preparing the system for the mass planting of drugs”; months earlier Transparency International had reported drugs planted on three detained protesters. In April parliament had already raised sentences and made refusing a drug test a crime.
In the index, possession fell from 3 to 2 and enforcement from 4 to 2. Georgia still allows an adult to use cannabis at home, and still offers no lawful way to come by it.[1][2][3]
Score by segment 0 to 10
- Possession · 25%3 → 2−1
- Personal cultivation · 25%1 → 1
- Punishment & enforcement · 20%4 → 2−2
- Sharing & gifting · 10%1 → 1
- Consumption · 10%3 → 3
- Legal access · 10%0 → 0
The bar shows the score after the change; the tick marks where it stood before. The scores after the change are Georgia's current scores.
References
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read. The score before the change is an editorial estimate.