Marijuana is not legal in Portugal. Since 2001, under Law 30/2000, personal possession and use of cannabis has been decriminalized, meaning it’s treated as an administrative matter rather than a crime. Growing, selling, and trafficking the plant remain criminal offenses, and there is no legal retail market. If you’re asking whether marijuana is legal in Portugal in the sense of being able to buy or carry it the way you would in a legalized jurisdiction, the answer is no.
Decriminalized Is Not the Same as Legal
The 2001 reform removed criminal penalties for using or possessing small quantities of any drug, cannabis included. It did not create a legal supply. To actually obtain cannabis, a person still has to go through the black market, and everyone in that supply chain is committing a crime.1The White House. Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Challenges and Limitations
So the law tolerates the user and prosecutes the seller. That is the whole shape of Portuguese drug policy, and it has been stable for more than two decades.
How Much Cannabis Counts as Personal Use
Portuguese law defines personal use as roughly a ten-day supply for one person. For cannabis, the thresholds are 25 grams of plant material or 5 grams of hashish.1The White House. Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Challenges and Limitations
Stay at or below those amounts and the case stays administrative. Go above them and the legal picture changes. A Portuguese Supreme Court ruling (Judgment No. 8/2008) established that possession above the ten-day threshold can be prosecuted as a criminal offense, potentially as trafficking. The person caught then has to prove the drugs were for personal use, which is hard to argue when the quantity exceeds what the law presumes one person needs.
What Happens If You Get Caught
Police confiscate the cannabis and refer you to a Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, known by its Portuguese acronym CDT. There are about twenty of these panels across the country, each staffed by a legal professional, a health care worker, and a social worker.
The hearing is mandatory. The panel looks at how much you had, whether you show signs of problematic use, your personal circumstances, and whether you’ve been through the system before. Available sanctions include fines, community service, suspension of a professional license, and bans from certain locations.
Most first-time cannabis cases end without a penalty. In 2019, about 80 percent of CDT decisions were suspensive, which essentially amounts to a warning and a closed case. Roughly 19 percent resulted in an actual sanction and 1 percent in acquittal. If you skip the hearing, the panel typically imposes the lightest available sanction rather than escalating.
The process applies to everyone physically present in Portugal. Tourists and foreign residents go through the same CDT system as citizens.
Buying, Selling, and Growing
Portugal’s drug trafficking law, Law 15/93, predates decriminalization and was deliberately left intact in 2001. Selling cannabis in any amount is a crime. So is growing it, even one plant for your own use. That carve-out is important: you can possess a small quantity without criminal consequences, but you cannot legally produce what you possess.
Trafficking penalties are tiered. Standard trafficking carries one to five years in prison. Larger quantities or harder drugs push the range to four to twelve years. Users who sell to fund their own habit face a reduced maximum of three years. Aggravating circumstances, such as organized crime involvement or causing death or serious injury, can bring sentences up to the legal maximum of 25 years.
If you’re a visitor planning to buy on the street, there’s a separate practical problem. Street dealers in Lisbon’s tourist areas, especially the historic center and nightlife districts, are known for selling fakes to foreigners. Lisbon police have confirmed that what tourists receive is often bay leaves, flour, or ground paracetamol, with the real product shown briefly to smell and then swapped at the point of sale. The city has run public awareness campaigns about this scam for years.
Driving After Using Cannabis
Portugal applies a strict per se limit for THC behind the wheel: 3.0 micrograms per liter of THC in blood. Exceeding it is a “very serious” traffic offense whether or not you appear impaired. Penalties can include a heavy fine, suspension or confiscation of your license, and imprisonment depending on the circumstances. Three drug-driving violations within five years triggers cancellation of your license for up to eight years, after which you must retake both medical and driving exams.
Decriminalization offers no cover here. Personal use being administrative does not change traffic law, and police conduct random drug testing.
Medical Cannabis and CBD
Portugal legalized cannabis-based medicines in 2018 under Law No. 33/2018. A licensed physician can prescribe cannabis-based products when conventional treatments have failed or caused serious side effects, and patients fill the prescriptions at pharmacies. INFARMED, Portugal’s national medicines authority, regulates the system end to end.2INFARMED. About Infarmed
Access in practice is narrow. Licensing delays, heavy documentation requirements, and regulatory investigations into licensed operators have created significant bottlenecks. The products are not covered by Portugal’s National Health Service, so patients pay out of pocket.
CBD is more restricted than many visitors expect. INFARMED’s position is that any product containing CBD extracted from cannabis resins, tinctures, or extracts requires a marketing authorization for medicinal use before it can be sold. In early 2025, INFARMED ordered CBD cosmetics withdrawn from the market, citing European pharmaceutical legislation.2INFARMED. About Infarmed Portugal’s Tax and Customs Authority has separately banned CBD and THC in tobacco products, including e-cigarette liquids. If you’re used to buying CBD oils or edibles over the counter at home, don’t assume they’ll be available legally in Portugal.
Is Portugal Moving Toward Legalization
Not in the near term. Various political parties have floated the idea, but no proposal has gained legislative traction. The far-right Chega party has pushed in the opposite direction, calling for tougher enforcement. The policy that has been in place since 2001 looks set to continue: personal use tolerated as a health matter, no legal supply, and no clear path to one.