Marijuana is not legal in Honduras. Cannabis is prohibited in every form and at every stage, from growing a plant to carrying a small amount for personal use, and the ban applies equally to Honduran citizens and foreign visitors. There is no medical program, no decriminalization threshold, and no carveout for CBD or hemp products.
The Statute That Governs Cannabis
The controlling law is the “Law on the Improper Use and Illicit Trafficking of Drugs and Psychotropic Substances,” enacted as Decree 126-89 in 1989 and amended by Decree 86-93. It covers production, trafficking, possession, and use of narcotic and psychotropic substances. Cannabis and its derivatives fall within the prohibited list, and the statute makes no distinction based on THC concentration.
Unlike several of its Latin American neighbors, Honduras has not built any legal framework around cannabis. No medical prescriptions. No licensed hemp. No gram threshold that separates personal use from dealing as a matter of law.
Penalties for Personal Use
Honduran law recognizes “personal use” as a concept but sets no fixed quantity to define it. A judge decides whether what you were carrying was for your own consumption or something more, based on the circumstances and the amount seized. Even a small quantity can be charged as something heavier if the court isn’t convinced.
Penalties for use climb with each offense:
- First offense: up to 30 days of mandatory internment in a rehabilitation center, plus a fine of 500 to 1,000 lempiras (roughly $19 to $38).
- Second offense: 30 to 90 days of internment and a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 lempiras (roughly $38 to $188).
- Beyond the second offense: a court can order continued internment until the person is deemed rehabilitated and fit to reintegrate, with no fixed upper limit.
That third tier is worth reading carefully. A judge who decides you haven’t been reintegrated can keep extending your time in a facility. For a third-time offender, the process looks less like a fine and more like an open-ended commitment.
Penalties for Growing, Selling, or Trafficking
Anything past personal consumption moves into much harsher territory. The law prohibits growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, distributing, and selling cannabis, and treats all of those activities as serious crimes regardless of quantity. A few backyard plants are prosecuted under the same statute as a cartel operation, though sentencing varies with scale.
Trafficking-level offenses carry 15 to 20 years in prison. Courts also impose fines of 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 lempiras, which at roughly 26.5 lempiras per dollar works out to about $37,700 to $188,700. Cultivation offenses can additionally result in seizure and destruction of all plants and harvested material.
Honduras sits on a major trafficking corridor between South America and North America, and courts treat drug cases with corresponding severity.
CBD, Hemp, and Low-THC Products
Travelers who assume CBD is fine because it’s sold openly at home will find the opposite in Honduras. The country has no regulation separating CBD, hemp extracts, or low-THC products from its blanket cannabis ban. Because the law prohibits cannabis without regard to its chemical components, CBD oil, hemp edibles, and similar items fall under the same prohibition as high-THC marijuana.
There is no legal THC threshold for CBD, no import permit process, and no licensed CBD retail market. A bottle of CBD tincture in your bag at a Honduran airport can expose you to the same personal-use penalties described above. The safest approach is to leave all cannabis-derived products at home.
If You’re a Foreign Visitor
Foreign nationals face the same criminal penalties as Honduran citizens, with one addition: expulsion from the country. Even a small personal-use amount can result in deportation after any sentence or rehabilitation period is served.
Honduran prisons are not comparable to facilities in the United States or Western Europe. Reports describe widespread gang activity, chronic overcrowding, and limited access to legal assistance or translation services for foreign detainees.
If you’re a U.S. citizen arrested in Honduras, the U.S. Embassy can provide a list of local attorneys, contact your family, help transfer money, and monitor your health and welfare in detention. What the embassy cannot do is represent you in court, pay your legal fees, or secure your release.1The National Museum of American Diplomacy. Jailed Abroad You are subject to Honduran law and the Honduran legal system.
How a Honduran Conviction Affects U.S. Immigration and Travel
A drug conviction abroad doesn’t stay abroad. Under U.S. immigration law, any conviction for violating a controlled substance law, including a foreign country’s law, can make a person inadmissible to the United States. That applies to visa holders, green card holders returning from travel, and anyone applying for an immigration benefit.2U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 302.4 Ineligibility Based on Controlled Substances The provision covers all controlled substance offenses, with no carveout for minor possession.
Trusted traveler programs are also exposed. U.S. Customs and Border Protection runs background checks and can deny or revoke Global Entry membership based on any criminal conviction, including a foreign misdemeanor drug charge. Even if you serve no prison time and pay only a fine in Honduras, the record can follow you through border databases for years.
For U.S. citizens, a foreign drug conviction won’t bar you from re-entering your own country. It can still trigger secondary inspection at the border, slow passport renewals, and complicate visa applications for other countries that ask about criminal history.
Is Reform Coming
As of 2026, no active legislative effort is pushing to decriminalize marijuana or set up a medical cannabis program in Honduras. Several Latin American neighbors have relaxed their cannabis laws, but Honduras has shown no comparable movement. The country’s ongoing struggles with drug trafficking make cannabis reform a politically untouchable subject for the foreseeable future.
Plan around the law as it stands: all cannabis products are illegal, enforcement is real, and the consequences can reach well past the Honduran border.