Marijuana is not legal in Cambodia. Growing, possessing, selling, or using cannabis is prohibited under the country’s 2012 drug control law, and the penalties run from a short jail stay for personal use up to life imprisonment for large-scale trafficking. Foreign visitors are held to the same law as Cambodian citizens, and a reputation for relaxed enforcement in tourist areas no longer reflects what is happening on the ground.
What Cambodian Law Actually Prohibits
Cambodia’s Law on Drug Control, updated on January 2, 2012, classifies cannabis, cannabis resin, and cannabis oil in Table I, the category reserved for substances the government treats as severely dangerous with no recognized medical use.1National Authority for Combating Drugs. Law On Drug Control All cultivation, manufacturing, transportation, possession, trafficking, distribution, supply, and use of Table I substances is banned unless the Minister of Health has issued a specific license for a narrowly defined medical, scientific, or educational research purpose.2Kingdom of Cambodia. Law on Control of Drugs Those licenses are not available to the public, and a medical marijuana prescription from another country carries no legal weight in Cambodia.
The law defines “keeping” to include possession, hiding, storing, and any similar handling, so there is no technical loophole in simply having cannabis on your person rather than using it.1National Authority for Combating Drugs. Law On Drug Control
CBD and Hemp Products
Cambodia has no separate rule for cannabidiol, hemp, or any low-THC derivative. Because the 2012 law places all cannabis plants and derivatives in Table I, non-psychoactive products fall under the same prohibition as high-potency marijuana.1National Authority for Combating Drugs. Law On Drug Control CBD oils, topicals, and supplements you use legally at home should be left behind before entering the country.
Penalties for Using Marijuana
Under Article 45, consuming a narcotic substance after already going through compulsory treatment carries one to six months in prison and a fine of 100,000 to 1,000,000 Riels (roughly $25 to $250). A further repeat offense doubles the sentence to six months to one year.1National Authority for Combating Drugs. Law On Drug Control
For a first-time user, the more common outcome is compulsory treatment rather than immediate prison. Courts can order detention in a drug treatment center for a period that ranges from six months to two years, set at the court’s discretion. Human rights organizations have raised serious concerns about conditions in these facilities. For a traveler, being sent to a treatment center is a realistic consequence of any arrest for cannabis use, and the experience is far removed from voluntary rehabilitation.
Penalties for Possession, Sale, and Cultivation
Possessing, transporting, or trafficking cannabis is handled separately from use and carries a sharper penalty structure under Article 40. The base sentence for any amount is two to five years in prison, with fines of 4,000,000 to 10,000,000 Riels.1National Authority for Combating Drugs. Law On Drug Control From there, penalties escalate by quantity: 8 kilograms of dry cannabis, 400 grams of resin, or 200 grams of cannabis oil moves a case into the 5-to-10-year tier, and larger quantities climb through 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year brackets up to life imprisonment with fines reaching 100,000,000 Riels (roughly $25,000). Repeat offenses, offenses committed in the course of official duties, and involvement with organized networks are treated as aggravating factors.
Growing cannabis is penalized separately. The base sentence is six months to two years in prison with a fine of 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 Riels (roughly $250 to $1,000). If the plants were intended for sale or distribution, the sentence rises to two to five years and the fine to 4,000,000 to 10,000,000 Riels.1National Authority for Combating Drugs. Law On Drug Control
The law contains one narrow concession. When someone cultivated a small amount strictly for personal consumption within a pattern of habitual use, the prosecutor has discretion to drop the charges, and a judge can acquit or issue only a reprimand. This is discretionary, not a right, and no visitor should plan around it.1National Authority for Combating Drugs. Law On Drug Control
Happy Pizza and the Tourist-Tolerance Myth
Restaurants in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and other tourist areas have long sold cannabis-infused food, often advertised as “happy pizza.” The visibility of these places leads many travelers to assume cannabis is tolerated or semi-legal in Cambodia. It is not. Cannabis-infused food is illegal under the same law as any other form of cannabis, and eating a happy pizza is legally indistinguishable from consuming cannabis any other way.
These restaurants have survived because police enforcement has historically focused on methamphetamine and heroin, not because any exception exists for edibles. That calculus has shifted. Since roughly 2017, Cambodia has escalated its broader drug enforcement campaign, and tens of thousands of mostly young people have been imprisoned on drug charges, many for marijuana-related offenses rather than harder substances. In 2018, Prime Minister Hun Sen launched a six-month national crackdown on drugs. Arrests at establishments selling cannabis-infused products do happen, and the informal tolerance of earlier years has eroded.
What Foreign Visitors Should Know
Coming from a country or state where marijuana is legal provides no protection in Cambodia, and consular assistance has real limits. A few points matter in practice:
- Simple possession of any amount starts at a minimum two-year prison sentence under the 2012 law. This is not a jurisdiction where small quantities draw small penalties.
- In some tourist areas, police have been known to extract informal payments from foreigners caught with small amounts of cannabis. Paying such a “fine” is not a legal resolution and does not prevent later prosecution.
- Enforcement is uneven and unpredictable. A street that ignored cannabis last year can be the site of a crackdown this year.
- Your embassy can visit you in jail and help you find a lawyer. It cannot get you released or override Cambodian law.
One boundary worth naming, since it separates Cambodia from several of its neighbors: Cambodia does not impose the death penalty for any crime, including drug trafficking. Article 32 of the constitution prohibits capital punishment.3Constitute. Cambodia 1993 (rev. 2008) Constitution Life imprisonment is the ceiling, and courts have shown they will impose it in serious trafficking cases. That is a meaningful distinction from Singapore, Indonesia, or Vietnam, but a life sentence in a Cambodian prison is not a soft landing.