Macau raises personal-use penalties and exposes larger stocks to prison

Macau increased the punishment for cannabis use and personal possession on 27 January 2017. The prison range became three months to one year, with a fine still available, and larger personal stocks could bring the much heavier production or trafficking penalties.^[1]

The earlier law allowed a shorter term

Under the 2009 drug law, illicit consumption and specified acts done exclusively for personal use, including growing and possession, carried up to three months in prison or a fine of up to sixty day-rates. The law also had separate ordinary and lesser production and trafficking offences.^[2]

The amendment was published in December 2016. Its main penalty changes took effect thirty days later, in January 2017; a separate change to the controlled-drug schedules took effect the day after publication.^[1]

Personal-use penalties rose

For consumption and the listed personal-use acts, the new prison range started at three months and reached one year. The alternative fine became sixty to 240 day-rates. A day-rate fine is calculated through the sentencing system, rather than being a fixed cash tariff for everyone.^[1]

Ordinary unauthorised production and trafficking also became more severely punished: the minimum rose from three years to five, with the maximum remaining fifteen years.^[1][2]

These changes affected people using cannabis as well as people supplying it. A person caught with a personal stock faced a higher basic penalty and, depending on the amount, a different set of offences.^[1]

A personal stock could cross into production or trafficking

The amended law directed conduct involving more than five times a listed daily reference quantity to the production, trafficking or lesser-gravity rules, as appropriate. The calculation counted quantities intended entirely for personal use as well as a stock divided between personal use and supply.^[1]

For someone keeping a supply at home, proving that it was all for themselves therefore did not guarantee treatment under the basic personal-use offence. The lesser production and trafficking tier, carrying one to five years, remained among the available outcomes.^[1][2]

A later court case showed the lesser tier mattered

In 2022, the top court reviewed a single-plant case. Its leaves and flowers weighed 37.208 grams, above the five-day reference quantity. Two first offenders had initially received combined sentences of five years nine months each.^[3]

After considering the plant and the circumstances, the court applied the lesser production tier. Their combined sentences fell to one year nine months and two years, both to be served in custody.^[3] The distinction between the ordinary and lesser tiers remains central to the penalties set out in Macau’s current profile.