The story · written by gpt-5.6-sol-medium,
Moldova’s Law 201/2025 took effect six months after its publication on 28 August 2025. The wide-ranging drug-control law replaced the 1999 statute and set a specific authorization route for industrial and horticultural hemp while keeping cannabis cultivation for drugs prohibited.
Cannabis and hemp separated
The law defines cannabis as the flowering or fruiting tops of plants in the genus Cannabis, and their resin, when they contain enough tetrahydrocannabinol to produce psychoactive effects. Seeds and leaves not accompanied by flowering tops are excluded from that definition.
It separately defines industrial or horticultural hemp as a cannabis plant with no more than 0.3% THC, confirmed by chemical analysis in an accredited laboratory. The permitted purposes include fibre, stalks, seeds, oil, biomass and other derivatives. Medical, recreational and experimental use are expressly outside that hemp definition.
Cultivation remains controlled
Article 14 prohibits unauthorised cultivation of plants under national control. It also specifically prohibits growing controlled plants, including cannabis, to obtain narcotic or psychotropic substances.
The exception covers industrial or horticultural hemp grown for the listed materials and derivatives. That cultivation requires an authorization from the National Food Safety Agency under regulations approved by the government and within approved annual estimates. The agency receives and examines applications, issues authorizations and supervises legal hemp cultivation.
The law also limits the starting material. Distributors of seed intended for sowing may deliver it only to holders of the relevant cultivation authorizations. The permitted varieties must be entered in the European Union’s common catalogue of agricultural plant varieties or in an EU member state’s national catalogue.
Replacing the earlier law
Law 201 was adopted on 10 July 2025 and published in Moldova’s Official Monitor on 28 August. Article 80 made it effective after six months and repealed Law 382/1999 at that point. Existing permits issued under the earlier law remain valid until their own expiry dates.
In the index
The replacement law did not move Moldova’s six scores. Personal psychoactive cannabis cultivation remained prohibited, while the newly detailed route concerns authorised low-THC hemp. The entry records the legal framework and its effective date rather than an expansion of personal access.[1]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Moldova here.
References
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