Cannabis Freedom Index

Driving

Cannabis and driving.

17 entries, 2003–2026 · 0 moved a score · back to the whole history

World average score and Driving entries per decade

13.2 today, from 99.1 in 1860

World average score, every country counted the same Entries that moved a score Context only

× Reset

20265 entries0 score changes

  1. September20
  2. May10
  3. February10
  4. Month unknown10

    1. 🇦🇺 Australia · New South Wales Easing ✓

      NSW assents to a registered-patient cannabis-driving reform

      Act 33 of 2026 received assent after passing Parliament on 17 September. The announced scheme would require a prescription, registration and education, and would be limited to unrestricted non-commercial drivers. A positive roadside test would still bring a 24-hour driving ban; laboratory THC below 50 ng/ml would bring no further action, while the first two detections at or above that threshold within two years would bring warnings. Implementation was expected in late 2026 or early 2027, and commencement was not established in this review.

    2. 🇦🇺 Australia · Queensland Tightening ✓

      Queensland assents to driving-penalty changes scheduled for December

      Act 23/2026 received assent on 21 September. Part 10 Division 3 commences on 1 December 2026 and adds a 7.5-penalty-unit minimum for the relevant-drug presence offence when the court chooses a fine-only sentence, subject to section 78E exceptions. It also creates a combined drug-presence/alcohol-limit offence. Other testing and immediate-suspension amendments in Division 4 still awaited proclamation in the reviewed legislative history; assent alone did not activate the whole package.

    1. 🇩🇿 Algeria Other law ✓ Article

      Algeria's replacement Road Code sets out drug-driving offences

      Law 26-09 was promulgated on 12 May and published in Official Gazette 36 on 17 May. Article 137 provides one to two years in prison and DZD100,000–200,000 for driving, or accompanying a learner, under the influence of narcotics or psychotropic substances. Refusing prescribed examinations attracts the relevant intoxication penalties under article 143. Courts may additionally withdraw or suspend a licence for up to five years. The code repeals Law 01-14 while retaining its implementing texts pending replacement. Professional transport drivers also face employment-related drug examinations.

    1. 🇧🇼 Botswana Debate ✓

      Botswana plans to ban driving under the influence of drugs

      The assistant minister of transport, Keoagile Atamelang, announced proposed Road Traffic Act amendments at a consultative meeting in Kgomokasitwa, describing existing provisions as targeting drunk drivers while leaving drug impairment largely unaddressed. That is the announcement's characterisation, not an accurate statement that drug driving was lawful: published section 46(2) already prohibits driving while unfit through drugs, with penalties under section 46(4). No commencement date or enacted replacement was established by this report.

    1. 🇧🇳 Brunei Other law ✓

      Brunei publishes a revised Road Traffic Act

      The 2026 revised edition of the Road Traffic Act, Chapter 68, covers in section 26 driving, attempting to drive or being in charge of a vehicle while under the influence of a drug to the point of being unable to control it properly. It provides a fine of B$10,000 and two years' imprisonment for a first conviction, and B$20,000 and four years for a repeat conviction.

20252 entries0 score changes

  1. 🇨🇬 Congo Other law ✓ Article

    Congo separates small personal quantities from wider drug trafficking

    Small personal possession, purchase or growing carried one to six months for a cannabis derivative other than oil, and two months to one year for high-risk drugs including cannabis oil; a fine alone was possible in either tier. Wider high-risk trafficking carried two to ten years, a fine, or both. President Denis Sassou-N'Guesso signed the law after parliament debated the need to replace an outdated drug-control system.

  2. 🇧🇬 Bulgaria Other law ✓

    Bulgaria's Constitutional Court upholds taking the cars of drugged drivers

    A car driven after alcohol or drug use is confiscated if the driver owns it; otherwise its value is charged. The Supreme Court of Cassation and a district judge in Svilengrad had asked whether that squares with the constitution. The court held that it does, by seven judges to five.

20241 entry0 score changes

  1. 🇩🇪 Germany Other law ✓

    Germany sets a THC limit for drivers

    A limit of 3.5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood serum took effect, with a ban on any cannabis for novice drivers and on combining it with alcohol.

20232 entries0 score changes

  1. 🇧🇬 Bulgaria Tightening ✓

    Bulgaria raises the penalties for driving after using drugs

    Amendments passed late at night stiffened the law on dangerous driving. The fine for driving after using narcotics rose from 500–1,500 leva to 1,000–5,000, and to 2,000–10,000 for a repeat; refusing a test after an accident brings up to a year in prison. A roadside test that detects seven drugs, marijuana among them, is enough to open criminal proceedings. In the first half of 2022 police had caught 222 drivers after drug use, against 128 a year earlier.

  2. 🏳️ Transnistria Tightening ✓ Article

    Transnistria adds a year without driving rights to drug-use penalties

    People punished for using drugs without a prescription faced a one-year restriction on driving rights alongside the existing fine or administrative arrest. The reform also applied to specified public-use offences and prevented someone without a licence from taking a driving test during the restriction. Parliament backed the prosecutor’s proposal in October; the president signed the law on 8 November, with commencement fourteen days after official publication.

20181 entry0 score changes

  1. 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso Other law ✓ Article

    Burkina Faso keeps small-quantity tiers but raises drug fines

    The new Penal Code retained shorter sentences for small personal possession and growing, raised the fines and removed the drug clauses' explicit fine-only alternatives. Cannabis derivatives other than oil carried one to six months and a fine; high-risk plants and substances, including cannabis oil, carried one month to a year and a fine, lowering that tier's previous two-month minimum. Parliament adopted the code to replace the 1996 code and the 1999 drug law's penalty provisions.

20171 entry0 score changes

  1. 🇰🇮 Kiribati Tightening ✓

    Kiribati adopts saliva-test rules for drug driving

    Parliament adopted a traffic law under which a positive saliva test would establish drug influence, including for someone driving a bicycle. The law set a first drug-driving penalty of ten to twenty penalty units and six to twelve months’ licence disqualification. Its explanatory memorandum described the drug-driving provisions as new; commencement required a ministerial notice.

20091 entry0 score changes

  1. 🇳🇿 New Zealand Tightening ✓

    New Zealand introduces compulsory impairment tests for suspected drug driving

    The drug-driving provisions of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2009 took effect. Police suspecting impairment could require a compulsory impairment test, with a blood specimen required after an unsuccessful test. The new offence combined impairment with evidence of drug use in blood; it was not the later random roadside saliva-testing regime.

20072 entries0 score changes

  1. 🇱🇺 Luxembourg Tightening ✓

    Luxembourg introduces a statutory framework for roadside drug testing

    The Law of 18 September 2007 took effect on 1 October and introduced a legal framework for roadside testing for illicit drugs. The national drug report records a THC threshold of 2 ng/ml, alongside separate thresholds for other substances, for the covered traffic offence. It also records immediate eight-working-day licence withdrawal for refusing alcohol or drug testing. These were traffic controls, distinct from the fine-only treatment of simple cannabis use introduced in 2001; the threshold is recorded as historical law.

  2. 🇩🇰 Denmark Tightening ✓

    Denmark introduces a blood-based prohibition on driving after specified drugs

    Law 524 added a Traffic Act rule prohibiting driving or attempting to drive with substances classified as dangerous to road safety in the blood, alongside the existing impairment rule. It exempted substances taken in accordance with a lawful prescription and allowed police saliva and sweat samples and eye inspections. The reform covered illicit drugs including cannabis; its statutory rule did not require proof of impaired driving for the new blood-based offence. Implementing Order 655 counted THC only above 0.001 mg per kg of blood.

20041 entry0 score changes

  1. 🇩🇪 Germany Easing ✓

    Germany's Constitutional Court rejects driving penalties based solely on trace THC detection

    In 1 BvR 2652/03, the Federal Constitutional Court overturned a cannabis driving fine and driving ban and remanded the case. The lower courts had relied on THC below 0.5 nanograms per millilitre without distinguishing detection from a possible effect on driving. The Court required a concentration capable of supporting the statutory assumption of an abstract traffic danger and discussed the then-used 1 nanogram threshold. This limited trace-only findings under the existing traffic offence; it was neither a general guarantee of safe driving nor the later statutory THC limit.

20031 entry0 score changes

  1. 🇫🇷 France Tightening ✓

    France promulgates a specific offence of driving after narcotics use

    Law 2003-87 rewrote Road Code Article L235-1 to punish driving, or accompanying a learner driver, after narcotics use established by a blood analysis. The original penalty was two years in prison and a 4,500-euro fine, rising to three years and 9,000 euros when combined with unlawful alcohol levels. The law also set screening and verification procedures. This date records promulgation on 3 February; publication followed on 4 February 2003. The previously recorded 23 January date was not the law's commencement.

Most entries

  1. 🇺🇸 United States170
  2. 🇮🇳 India53
  3. 🇧🇷 Brazil51
  4. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom45
  5. 🇨🇦 Canada44
  6. 🇮🇹 Italy39
  7. 🇲🇽 Mexico39
  8. 🇩🇪 Germany34

Fewest entries

  1. 🇰🇵 North Korea3
  2. 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau4
  3. 🇹🇻 Tuvalu4
  4. 🇾🇪 Yemen4
  5. 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea5
  6. 🇪🇷 Eritrea5
  7. 🇲🇻 Maldives5
  8. 🇵🇼 Palau5
esc

    ↑↓ to move, ↵ to open.