The story · written by opus-5.5,
Nepal’s parliament has promised a cannabis law for years and not passed one. In August 2026 a province stopped waiting, and wrote its own.
Fifty years of prohibition
Until 1973 cannabis was sold in licensed shops in Kathmandu. Under pressure from the United States and the United Nations, Nepal cancelled the licences, and the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act of 1976 made growing, selling and using it crimes.
Attempts to undo that have all stalled: a motion by 48 lawmakers and a private bill in 2020, and a budget promise in 2024.
A bill sent back
Gandaki’s provincial assembly passed its bill on 14 July 2026. The province chief, Dilliraj Bhatta, returned it, questioning whether it conflicted with the 1976 Act and exceeded the province’s powers. It was the first time a province chief there had sent a bill back. The assembly passed it again unchanged, and Bhatta signed within three days, as the constitution requires.
The province’s argument is that agriculture is a provincial subject. Its chief attorney, Chiranjeevi Sharma Paudel, said the law was “introduced primarily to benefit farmers”.
The rules
| Requirement | |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Medicinal or industrial use only |
| THC | No more than 0.3% |
| Where | Only in zones the province designates, with barren land preferred |
| Plot | At least two ropanis, about 1,018 square metres |
| Buyer | A purchase commitment from a pharmaceutical or manufacturing company |
| Applicant | No drug conviction in the past ten years |
| Licence | Five years, after a one-year preliminary approval and a site inspection |
An inspector must be present at harvest, quantities are recorded in front of the ward chair and police, and shipments travel sealed. Record-keeping failures bring fines of 50,000 to 500,000 rupees. Growing without a licence or selling outside the system is prosecuted under national narcotics law.
What it does not do
Nobody can grow yet. The gazetted Act, section 1(2), starts on a further notice, and a review dated 13 October 2026 had not found one. Licences also wait on regulations, zone designations and a testing laboratory, none of which exist. And the federal ban is untouched: growing, holding and using cannabis remain crimes under the 1976 Act everywhere in Nepal, including Gandaki. In August the finance minister told the upper house that more study was needed before the national rules changed.
The 0.3 per cent cap is also low: it is the level other countries use to define hemp.
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Nepal here.
References
- The Kathmandu Post — Inside Gandaki's new cannabis law, who can grow it, where and under what rules (7 August 2026)archived
- Policy Nepal — Gandaki cannabis implementation review (updated 13 October 2026)archived
- The Kathmandu Post — Gandaki passed the cannabis law. The harder one comes next (12 August 2026)archived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.