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Bhutan

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Bhutan
འབྲུག་ཡུལ (Druk Yul)
Wangdue Phodrang Dzong above the river, central Bhutan
Wangdue Phodrang Dzong above the river, central Bhutan
Flag
Capital Thimphu
Continent Asia
Subregion South Asia
Cannabis Status
Legal Status Illegal (fibre and animal-feed exception)
Status Since 2015
Enforcement Active; wild plants uprooted near towns and schools
Documentation
Growing Regions 1
Growing Areas 3
Accessions 11
Conservation
Populations none documented yet


Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཡུལ, Druk Yul) is a small, landlocked country in the eastern Himalayas, between China (Tibet) and India, with an area of 38,394 km².[1] Cannabis sativa grows wild across much of it, on streamsides and waste ground between about 300 and 3,000 m.[2][3] In 1838 a British mission found hemp grown with barley and buckwheat at a village on its road in from Assam. In 1894 the plant was cultivated in the Bhutan Hills.[4][5]

Under the Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Substance Abuse Act of Bhutan 2015, amended in 2018, cannabis is a narcotic drug with no medicinal value. Cultivating, harvesting, possessing and trafficking it are offences graded by plant number or weight, and the Act allows fibre and animal feed to be produced under rules.[6][7] Police and local administrations uproot wild plants near towns, schools, roadsides and homes, in a nationwide programme since 2025.[8] In the gewogs (sub-districts) of Lauri and Serthig in Samdrup Jongkhar, villagers have uprooted and dried the wild plant to sell across the border, a trade they trace to their parents' and grandparents' time. Local leaders there asked in 2023 for its sale for medicinal purposes to be made legal.[9][10][11]

Geography

Cannabis sativa grows in the Chukka and Gaylegphug districts in the south, the Thimphu, Tongsa and Tashigang districts in the centre and the Upper Mo Chu district (Gasa) in the north, on streamsides and waste ground at 300–3,000 m.[2] Leaf samples taken in July and August 2018 came from 17 sites in Gasa, Punakha, Wangdue, Thimphu, Paro, Haa, Chukha, Dagana, Samtse and Phuentsholing, in the basins of the Puna Tsang Chhu, the Wang Chhu and the Amo Chhu.[12]

The interior is a series of six major ridges alternating with seven deep river valleys, from the Amo Chu (Torsa) in the west to the Kulong Chu (Manas) in the east; at Punakha and Tashi Yangtse the valley floor is as low as 1,500 m.[13] Several main valleys, Thimphu, Paro and Punakha among them, get little direct rain and are dry for most of the year outside the monsoon.[13] The land rises from 160 m to more than 7,000 m.[1] In the south lie the Siwalik Hills, with dense deciduous forest, lowland river valleys and mountains of up to about 1,500 m, and a few narrow strips of the plains, the duars, extend into Bhutan.[1][13] Forest covers about 70 per cent of the land and cultivated land nearly 3 per cent.[1]

Demographics

In 2017 Bhutan had 735,553 people, of whom 681,720 were Bhutanese; 62.2 per cent lived in rural areas.[14] The National Statistics Bureau projects a population of 790,718 for 2026.[1]

Communities with cannabis relationships

The plant is called Phagpa Nam in Shachop, the speech of eastern Bhutan, and bhang in Nepali.[2]

Sonam Tshering worked for the Bhutan Narcotics Control Agency in 2010–2013, when it was active in remote villages that it considered vulnerable to cross-border smuggling into India. The agency gave out free vegetable seeds and other support to discourage the harvesting of cannabis; the farmers grew the vegetables but found it hard to earn from them, because the villages were far from markets.[3]

Agriculture

In 2017, 43.9 per cent of employed people worked in agriculture, and 49.1 per cent of employed Bhutanese. Of Bhutanese households, 60.4 per cent held land, with a mean holding of 2.22 acres, and 36.1 per cent kept livestock.[14] Farmers also keep cattle for draught and milk, chickens for eggs and pigs for meat.[1]

A 2005 profile by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported no cultivation of opium, cannabis or coca in Bhutan, and "some residual traditional use of wild cannabis in pig feed and making hemp fibre products".[15] The cabinet has authorised a private company to grow cannabis for research in Samtse; the prime minister told parliament in 2023 that the permits were issued for research purposes under the 2015 Act.[16] By 2025 the company, Bhutan Nutraceutical, had a plantation of four acres.[3]

Cannabis in Bhutan

Main article: Cannabis in Bhutan

History

The British mission of 1837–38, led by R. B. Pemberton to settle frontier disputes, crossed Bhutan from Dewangiri in the east by way of Tashigang and Punakha to Buxa in the south-west.[17] William Griffith, a botanist travelling with it, found only a little cultivation around Sasee, a ruined village which D. G. Long identified in 1979 with modern Sassi: barley, buckwheat and hemp. Pemberton put the place at 4,325 ft (1,318 m).[4][18][17] Griffith also listed Cannabis in rice fields at Ghoomkurrah and near a temple at Oongar, which Long identifies with Ghunkarah and Unjar.[19][17] Summing up the journey, Griffith wrote that a few straggling plants of hemp grew near most villages at rather low elevations, but that he never saw enough to suppose the plant was used.[4]

The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 said of the hill tracts in and around Assam that the hemp plant "is cultivated in the Bhutan Hills, and cannot but run wild there".[5] The Assam excise memorandum to the Commission said that hemp was grown in the Bhutan Hills and sold secretly in small quantities when "the Bhutias" came down to trade in the cold weather.[20] J. J. S. Driberg, the province's Commissioner of Excise, and J. D. Anderson, a deputy commissioner, spoke of ganja brought or smuggled down from Bhutan. G. Gordon, the Deputy Commissioner of Goalpara, a district on the Bhutan border, said he had never heard of hemp being imported from Bhutan.[21][22][23]

Bhutan acceded to the 1988 UN convention against illicit traffic in 1990, and to the 1961 and 1971 conventions in August 2005, the year its National Assembly passed a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and Substance Abuse Act.[24][25][26][27] That Act prohibited the harvesting of cannabis "except for production of fibre and animal feed" and required landowners to destroy cannabis plants growing on their land; the 2015 Act replaced it and dropped the landowners' duty.[27][6]

Cultivation

The Flora of Bhutan distinguishes two subspecies: subsp. sativa, a taller plant yielding fibre and oil and "the common plant in Sikkim and Bhutan", and subsp. indica, smaller and much branched, found in Tashigang district at the Gamri Chu.[2] Herbarium labels from 1914 describe plants ranging from a "Dwarf var." on sand by a stream (Cooper 1486 (1914)) to plants of 3–10 ft in moist shade (Cooper 1174 (1914)). Stature in the genus is discussed in Dwarf and semidwarf Cannabis.[28][29]

In 2014 the plants were abundant in the wild on private and government land.[30] "We don't cultivate marijuana. It grows of its own, whereby people uproot and dry it to sell in border areas for money," an official of Serthig gewog in Samdrup Jongkhar told The Bhutanese in 2016, adding that the practice went back to the time of the villagers' grandparents.[9] That year the Jomotshangkha police seized about 748 kg of dried marijuana from Lauri and Serthig gewogs. A villager told BBS that the trade had been carried on since his parents' time and that dried marijuana used to be bartered for rice and other necessities.[10] In 2018 sources told BBS that trafficking was "one of the key sources of income" for the villagers of Serthig, and in 2023 the plant was reported to grow abundantly in both gewogs.[31][11]

Cannabis is harvested in other places too. In Punakha, the police called Shengana, Kabisa and Goenshari gewogs "the hotspots for marijuana harvesting for abusers and smugglers since these gewogs have abundant growth of marijuana" (2020).[32] In July 2020 police in Bumthang arrested seven people in a case reported as marijuana harvesting and possession of hashish.[33] In November 2021 Wungchilo in Jamkhar gewog, Trashi Yangtse, four hours' walk from the road, had plenty of marijuana plants, and people went there to make hashish to sell; a police patrol uprooted and burned the plants.[34] Wexler and Tshering write that wild cannabis "has already proved to be a reliable source of income" in Lauri, Serthig and Phuentsholing dungkhag.[3]

Preparations and consumption

The plant gives fibre, oil and an intoxicating resin.[2] In 2005 it still had some residual use in pig feed and hemp fibre products.[15] Police seized 1.91 kg of hashish in 2023 and 1.26 kg in 2024, against 14.97 kg and 13.15 kg of cannabis leaves.[35]

In a national survey in October–December 2016, one in five of the 9,368 students surveyed had used cannabis, and the average age of first use was 16. An official of the narcotics agency suggested cannabis might be the most commonly abused drug "because it grows plenty in the country".[36] In 2025 the Royal Bhutan Police described cannabis as one of the most abused substances in Bhutan, largely because it is easy to obtain.[8]

Trade and commerce

The Diplomat reported in 2025 that cannabis grown in the forests of the southern districts was the only item illicitly exported from Bhutan, and that Samdrup Jongkhar, on the border, was the most important route into India.[37] Police seized 1,355 kg of marijuana between 2014 and 2017.[38] In 2016 a kilogram of dried marijuana from Lauri and Serthig was said to fetch Rs 1,600–1,700 across the border.[10] In parliament in 2023 the member for Jomotshangkha–Martshala asked whether cultivation could be legalised, as cannabis had once been a source of income for the people of Jomotshangkha and Martshala; the prime minister said no.[16] In February 2026 three people were arrested over more than 28 kg of cannabis sent in two parcels.[39] In the first half of 2026 cannabis seizures rose from 2,371.82 g to 47,427.89 g against the same period of 2025, a rise the police put down to stronger enforcement.[40]

By 2025 the Bhutan Food and Drug Authority had not approved Bhutan Nutraceutical's products for export or medicinal use, pending clinical trials, and the government was considering moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule IV of the Act, which would allow medicinal cannabis products to be exported.[3]

The 2015 Act came into force on 20 July 2015. It lists cannabis in Schedule I, "Narcotic Drugs with no medicinal value", and sets threshold quantities of 50 g of cannabis, 7 g of hashish, 3 ml of hashish oil and five plants. Cultivation is a misdemeanour below five plants and a felony from five; harvest, possession and trafficking are graded against the threshold weights.[6] Section 130 allows a person or entity to produce or extract fibres or animal feed for licit purposes as prescribed under rules and regulations.[6] The 2018 amendment widened the definition of cannabis to the whole plant, including its seeds and leaves, and lets a person holding up to twice the threshold weight be charged with substance abuse instead of trafficking if set conditions are met.[7]

In June 2021 the government said it was exploring ways to legalise marijuana for medicinal use.[41] Local leaders of Samdrup Jongkhar asked the National Assembly in 2023 to legalise sales for medicinal purposes, and a conference on Gross National Happiness and law heard arguments for and against decriminalisation in 2024.[11][42]

Growing Regions

Region
Eastern Himalayas

Growing Areas

Growing AreaHas growing regionStatus
JomotshangkhaEastern HimalayasActive
PunakhaEastern HimalayasActive
WungchiloEastern HimalayasActive

Accessions

Accession IDNameCollectedLocalityArea
Cooper 1104 (1914)Cooper 1104 herbarium specimen, Chukka (1914)Chukka
Cooper 1174 (1914)Cooper 1174 herbarium specimen, Chukka (1914)Chukka
Cooper 1486 (1914)Cooper 1486 herbarium specimen, Chalimarphé (1914)Chalimarphé
Cooper 3143 (1914)Cooper 3143 herbarium specimen, Gichha, Punakha (1914)Gichha
Cooper 3352 (1914)Cooper 3352 herbarium specimen, Timpu (1914)Timpu
Grierson 2029a (1979)Grierson and Long 2029a herbarium specimen, female plant, Tashigang (1979)Tashigang, stream above town
Grierson 2029b (1979)Grierson and Long 2029b herbarium specimen, male plant, Tashigang (1979)Tashigang, stream above town
Grierson 2089 (1979)Grierson and Long 2089 herbarium specimen, Gamri Chu (1979)Gamri Chu below Lungten Zampa
Grierson 4168 (1982)Grierson and Long 4168 herbarium specimen, Tintibi Bridge (1982)Tintibi Bridge, Mangde Chu
Kanai 5203 (1967)Kanai et al. 5203 herbarium specimen, Tongsa Bridge to Tongsa (1967)Tongsa Bridge to Tongsa
Ludlow 19635 (1949)Ludlow, Sherriff and Hicks 19635 herbarium specimen, Tsalimape (1949)Tsalimape

Conservation status

Eleven herbarium sheets of Bhutanese cannabis, collected between 1914 and 1982, are held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.[43] Leaf samples from 95 plants, all recorded as female, were taken in 2018 and registered with Wageningen University as the submitting centre; vouchers for 36 of them are at the Bhutan National Herbarium (THIM).[12][44][45]

Since 2025 the police have uprooted plants in all 20 dzongkhags (districts), concentrating on plants close to towns, schools, roadsides and homes. Thimphu's plants were buried under soil.[8] Earlier drives included one in Wangdue Phodrang in 2019 that cleared "about 93 acres" of plants.[46]

Recent news

No recent news items.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 National Statistics Bureau (June 2026). Statistical Yearbook of Bhutan 2025 (PDF) (Report). Thimphu: National Statistics Bureau, Royal Government of Bhutan. pp. xiii–xvi, 88. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Grierson, A. J. C.; Long, D. G. (1983). Flora of Bhutan including a record of plants from Sikkim. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. part 1, Cannabaceae, Cannabis sativa, p. 134 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Wexler, Jay D.; Tshering, Sonam (February 2025). "THC meets GNH: considering cannabis policy in Bhutan through a Gross National Happiness lens". The Journal of Gross National Happiness and Law. 2: 76–109. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Griffith, William (1839). "Journal of the Mission which visited Bootan, in 1837-38". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 8. pp. 213, 280 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", paras. 38–39, p. 22 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Substance Abuse Act of Bhutan 2015" (PDF). Bhutan Food and Drug Authority. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Substance Abuse (Amendment) Act of Bhutan 2018" (PDF). Bhutan Food and Drug Authority. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Dema, Tshering (24 May 2025). "RBP initiates nationwide cannabis uprooting campaign to curb substance use". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pem, Damchoe (7 May 2016). "Man arrested for illicit trafficking of 680 kg of marijuana and its derivatives". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Few villagers of Samdrup Jongkhar still into marijuana smuggling". BBS. 18 July 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Wangchuk, Kinley (19 September 2023). "Samdrup Jongkhar local leaders call for marijuana legalisation for medicinal purposes". BBS. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "BioSample records BTN001–BTN095: Cannabis sativa leaf samples, Bhutan, 2018". National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Grierson, A. J. C.; Long, D. G. (1983). Flora of Bhutan including a record of plants from Sikkim. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. part 1, "Geographical outline of Bhutan" and "Notes on the vegetation zones of Bhutan" – via Internet Archive.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 National Statistics Bureau (2018). 2017 Population & Housing Census of Bhutan: National Report (PDF) (Report). Thimphu: National Statistics Bureau, Royal Government of Bhutan. pp. xv, xvii, 17, 51. ISBN 978-99936-28-50-7. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 UNODC Regional Office for South Asia (September 2005). Bhutan (PDF) (Report). South Asia Regional Profile, chapter 21. New Delhi: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. section 3(a), p. 22.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Dekar, Tashi (10 October 2023). "PM says no to legalising cannabis". BBS. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Long, D. G. (1979). "The Bhutanese itineraries of William Griffith and R. E. Cooper". Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 37 (2): 355–368. doi:10.24823/nrbge.1979.3160.
  18. ↑ Political Missions to Bootan. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Office. 1865. p. 65 (Pemberton's report) – via Internet Archive.
  19. ↑ Griffith, William (1847). McClelland, John (ed.). Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bootan, Affghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries. Calcutta: Bishop's College Press. pp. 214, 231, 255 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Assam Memorandum". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 18 – via Internet Archive.
  21. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. J. S. Driberg, Commissioner of Excise and Inspector General of Police and Jails". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Assam witness no. 2, p. 532 – via Internet Archive.
  22. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. D. Anderson, Deputy Commissioner; Officiating Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Assam witness no. 4, p. 535 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. G. Gordon, Deputy Commissioner, Goalpara". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Assam witness no. 10, p. 543 – via Internet Archive.
  24. ↑ "United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances". United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter VI, 19. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  25. ↑ "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, as amended by the Protocol amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961: status". United Nations Treaty Collection. United Nations. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  26. ↑ "Convention on Psychotropic Substances". United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter VI, 16. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and Substance Abuse Act 2005" (PDF). Parliament of Bhutan. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  28. ↑ "Herbarium specimen E00150672: Cannabis". RBGE Herbarium Catalogue. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  29. ↑ "Herbarium specimen E00150671: Cannabis". RBGE Herbarium Catalogue. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  30. ↑ Zangpo, Thukten (25 October 2014). "NC to discuss five bills in upcoming session". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  31. ↑ "Two arrested on charges of illicit trafficking of marijuana". BBS. 3 November 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  32. ↑ "Marijuana abuse, an increasing trend, after border lockdown". Business Bhutan. 19 May 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  33. ↑ "Seven arrested in Bumthang for marijuana harvesting and possession of hashish". BBS. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  34. ↑ Darjay, Sonam (24 November 2021). "Wungchilo marijuana field attracts miscreants- Trashi Yangtse". BBS. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  35. ↑ Dema, Tshering (15 March 2025). "RBP is seeing new cases of hard drugs smuggling". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  36. ↑ Pem, Damchoe (1 July 2017). "Survey shows one in five students used cannabis". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  37. ↑ Bhattacharyya, Rajeev (3 September 2025). "Bhutan is Becoming Entangled in South Asia's Narcotics Grid". The Diplomat. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  38. ↑ Pem, Damchoe (20 January 2018). "383,756 SP capsules, 22,737 N10 tablets, 1,355 kg marijuana seized from 2014-17". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  39. ↑ Dema, Tshering (28 February 2026). "RBP arrests three, seizes over 28 kg cannabis". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  40. ↑ Dema, Tshering (25 July 2026). "Drug-related offences drop in first 6 months of 2026". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  41. ↑ "Government exploring ways to legalise marijuana for medicinal use". BBS. 11 June 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  42. ↑ "Can Bhutan legalise cannabis? Experts debate health benefits and economic potential". BBS. 13 November 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  43. ↑ "Occurrence search: Cannabis, Bhutan, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  44. ↑ "BioSample records BTN003–BTN095: Cannabis sativa leaf samples, Bhutan". National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  45. ↑ "Bhutan National Herbarium (THIM)". Index Herbariorum. New York Botanical Garden. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  46. ↑ "Ninety Three acres of marijuana plants uprooted in Wangdue". BBS. 1 June 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
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