Romania cuts cannabis possession penalties and lets courts impose fines

From 7 March 2005, people caught with cannabis for themselves could receive a fine or six months to two years in prison.^[1] The amendment put cannabis and other drugs in the lower “risk” category on a different personal-use penalty from drugs in the higher category.^[1]

Personal use gets a separate penalty

Romania had adopted a dedicated drug law in 2000.^[1] The 2004 amendment rewrote its personal-use offence, covering growing, producing, preparing, buying and possessing drugs for oneself.^[1]

For cannabis, the practical choice now included a fine.^[1] The prison range was six months to two years.^[1] For drugs classified as high-risk, the amended law retained two to five years.^[1] The distinction concerned the substance involved as well as the purpose for which a person held or grew it.^[1]

There was no gram allowance in the rewritten offence.^[1] A person could still be prosecuted for personal possession, and the fine was one of the punishments available within criminal law.^[1]

The law also promises help

The amendment gave much more space to treatment and social support.^[1] It defined integrated assistance as a combination of health, psychological and social services intended to address dependence, rehabilitation and social reintegration.^[1] Evaluation and individual care were part of that approach.^[1]

It also set out a route through which participation in an assistance programme could affect punishment.^[1] Those provisions had a different starting date: they were tied to the entry into force of the new Penal Code.^[1] The immediate penalty change and the treatment provisions therefore had separate timetables.^[1]

Two dates mattered

The law was published on 7 December 2004.^[1] Its general commencement rule allowed three months before it took effect, giving the personal-use amendment its March 2005 starting date.^[1] The Gazette expressly separated the deferred treatment provisions from that general rule.^[1]

Another reduction follows in 2014

When the new Penal Code took effect in February 2014, the cannabis minimum fell again, from six months to three months.^[2] The two-year maximum and fine alternative remained.^[2] The same reform provided assessment and, with the person’s agreement, admission to an assistance programme; following it could allow a court to waive or postpone punishment.^[2]

Those successive changes shaped the personal-use rules in Romania: an offence could bring a fine, prison or a treatment-linked outcome, depending on the applicable conditions.^[1][2]