Colombia
More actions
| Colombia | |
|---|---|
| Colombia | |
| |
| Barichara, Santander | |
| Capital | Bogotá |
| Continent | South America |
| Subregion | South America |
| Cannabis Status | |
| Legal Status | Personal dose decriminalised; medical use licensed |
| Status Since | 1994 |
| Enforcement | Personal-dose possession is not criminal; self-cultivation of up to 20 plants for personal use is exempt from licensing; supply outside the licensed medical sector is criminal |
| Documentation | |
| Growing Regions | 2 |
| Growing Areas | 7 |
| Accessions | 9 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Colombia is a country in north-western South America. Its personal dose has not been a criminal matter since 1994, when the Constitutional Court struck down the provisions of Law 30 of 1986 that punished it (see Legal status).[1][2]
Two Punto Rojo selections, ZOM-COL-QUIN-0120240001 and ZOM-COL-QUIN-0120240002, were collected as seed near Calarcá in Quindío Department in January 2024.
Geography
Colombia spans the northern Andes, the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, the Llanos and the Amazon.[citation needed] The Punto Rojo accessions come from near Calarcá, in Quindío Department.
Demographics
Agriculture
Cannabis in Colombia
History
Cultivation
Both Punto Rojo accessions were collected as seed in January 2024 from a landrace population grown near Calarcá. The flowers were processed as ganja.
Preparations and consumption
The aroma of the 'Incense' selection is recorded as incense-like, and its effect in the words of the person who gave the seed: "Long day, working man's cannabis. Spark it and get to work. You feel like gardening, like sweeping the floor. It makes you feel alive."
Trade and commerce
Legal status
Possession of a personal dose is not a criminal matter. Medical cannabis is licensed, and a 2025 decree opened the medical market to the flower itself. Hemp grown for fibre and grain has a law of its own, and up to twenty plants grown for personal use need no licence.
In Sentencia C-221 of 5 May 1994 the Constitutional Court declared articles 51 and 87 of Law 30 of 1986, the national narcotics statute, unconstitutional. Article 51 punished carrying, keeping for one's own use or consuming a personal dose with arrest and a fine; article 87 sent people affected by drug dependence who had committed none of the statute's offences to treatment establishments. The Court held that making drug consumption an offence violated the right to the free development of personality. It upheld the statute's definition of the personal dose, which for cannabis is up to 20 grams of marijuana or 5 grams of hashish.[1] According to Dejusticia, a 2009 constitutional amendment that prohibited carrying and consuming narcotic or psychotropic substances except on medical prescription provided for administrative measures instead of criminal penalties, and the Court later held that neither the amendment nor a 2011 change to the Penal Code made the personal dose a crime.[2]
Decree 2467 of 22 December 2015, issued under Law 30 of 1986, set out a licensing regime for the cultivation of cannabis plants, the possession of seed for sowing, the control of cultivation areas, and the production, manufacture, export, import and use of these plants and their derivatives for strictly medical and scientific purposes. The National Narcotics Council licensed seed possession and cultivation; the Ministry of Health and Social Protection licensed production and manufacture, and the export of derivatives.[3]
Law 1787 of 6 July 2016 gave medical cannabis a statutory framework. Its object is safe and informed access to the medical and scientific use of cannabis and its derivatives, and it places under state control the cultivation, production, manufacture, import, export, storage, transport, sale, distribution, use and possession of cannabis seed, cannabis, its derivatives and products containing it, for medical and scientific purposes.[4]
Decree 811 of 23 July 2021, issued in development of Law 1787, replaced Title 11 of Part 8 of Book 2 of Decree 780 of 2016, the single regulatory decree of the health sector, with new rules on safe and informed access to cannabis. They cover seed, plants, and psychoactive and non-psychoactive cannabis and derivatives for medical and scientific purposes, and seed, plant material, grain and non-psychoactive derivatives for industrial, horticultural and food purposes.[5]
Law 2204 of 10 May 2022 created a separate framework for hemp: the fibre and grain of cannabis whose THC content is 0.3% or less, or another figure the government sets, used for industrial and scientific purposes. It does not regulate medical use or the adult use of cannabis. Growing for the flowering tops, or growing cultivars above 0.3% THC, still requires the licences provided for in the regulations of Law 1787.[6]
Decree 1138 of 27 October 2025 amended the Decree 811 rules to admit cannabis flower among the finished products allowed for medical purposes. Licensed growers' export modality became "national use and export", so that harvested cannabis can also be delivered within Colombia for medical use; flower that has not been transformed can be sold and dispensed with a certificate from the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA); and finished cannabis products for direct human or veterinary consumption may be marketed only for medical purposes. The decree gave the ministries five months to issue the technical rules for this, and for two years from those rules it reserves the growing of raw cannabis for this domestic medical market to licence holders that are small or medium growers, or micro or small enterprises.[7]
Self-cultivation sits outside this licensing system. Under Law 30 of 1986 a plantation means more than twenty plants from which dependence-producing drugs can be extracted,[8] and the Penal Code punishes cultivating, conserving or financing plantations of marijuana without the permission of the competent authority.[9] Decree 811 of 2021 exempts self-cultivation (autocultivo), which it limits to natural persons growing no more than twenty cannabis plants from which drugs may be extracted solely for personal use, from licensing and quotas, because nothing grown this way may be exploited or passed to anyone else. Decree 1138 of 2025 kept that exemption.[5][7]
Growing Regions
Northern Colombia is made up of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Serranía del Perijá and Provincia de Ocaña growing areas, and Cordillera Central of the Northern Cauca, Tolima and Quindío growing areas on the Central Cordillera of the Andes. The Ariari growing area, in Meta on the piedmont of the Eastern Cordillera, belongs to neither region.
Landrace cannabis growing regions currently documented on the wiki:
| Region |
|---|
| Cordillera Central (Colombia) |
| Northern Colombia |
Growing Areas
Landrace cannabis growing areas currently documented on the wiki:
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBG-COL-UNK-0120120001 | Colombia Mangobiche 2012 | ||
| CBG-COL-UNK-0120130001 | Colombia Punto Rojo 2013 | ||
| HCG-COL-QUIN-0120240001 | 2024 HCG Punto Rojo 'Incense' Reproduction | ||
| HCG-COL-UNK-0120210001 | 1970 Colombian Gold 2021 | ||
| HCG-COL-UNK-0120250001 | Colombian Mangobiche 2025 | ||
| Plowman 3767 (1974) | Plowman 3767 herbarium specimen, Jardín Botánico José Celestino Mutis, Bogotá (1974) | ||
| VIB-COL-UNK-0100000001 | Colombian Santa Marta Gold General Population | ||
| ZOM-COL-QUIN-0120240001 | Punto Rojo 'Incense' Selection 2023 | Quindío | |
| ZOM-COL-QUIN-0120240002 | Punto Rojo 'Jaime's' Selection 2023 | Quindío |
Conservation status
Both accessions are recorded at critical conservation priority. Both accessions note that cultivation is legal in the area; the 'Incense' accession adds that "the vast majority of the genetics cultivated in Colombia legally are foreign, hybrids or both".
Recent news
| Article | Date | Category |
|---|---|---|
| News:1985-08-04/Eradication/us-house-delegation-watches-helicopters-spray-a-marijuana-field-in-magdalena | Eradication |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sentencia C-221/94. Corte Constitucional de Colombia (5 May 1994). Expediente D-429; resolutive part, arts. 51 and 87 of Ley 30 de 1986. Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pereira Arana, Isabel; Pérez, Sergio (6 May 2024). "Avances y paradojas: 30 años de la despenalización del uso y porte personal de drogas" (in español). Dejusticia. Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Por el cual se reglamentan los aspectos de que tratan los artículos 3, 5, 6 y 8 de la Ley 30 de 1986(Decreto No. 2467), 22 December 2015, arts. 1 and 3 (Diario Oficial No. 49.734, 22 December 2015).Colombia, Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social.Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Por medio de la cual se reglamenta el Acto Legislativo 02 de 2009(Ley No. 1787), 6 July 2016, arts. 1 and 3 (Diario Oficial No. 49.926, 6 July 2016).Colombia.Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Por el cual se sustituye el Título 11 de la Parte 8 del Libro 2 del Decreto 780 de 2016, Único Reglamentario del Sector Salud y Protección Social, en relación con el acceso seguro e informado al uso del cannabis y de la planta de cannabis(Decreto No. 811), 23 July 2021, arts. 2.8.11.1.1, 2.8.11.1.3 (num. 7) and 2.8.11.2.1.2 (par.) (Diario Oficial No. 51.744, 23 July 2021).Colombia, Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social.Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Por la cual se crea el marco legal para el uso industrial y científico del cáñamo en Colombia y se dictan otras disposiciones(Ley No. 2204), 10 May 2022, arts. 1 and 2 (Diario Oficial No. 52.030, 10 May 2022).Colombia.Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Por medio del cual se modifica parcialmente el Título 11 de la Parte 8 del Libro 2 del Decreto 780 de 2016, Único Reglamentario del Sector Salud y Protección Social, en relación con el acceso seguro e informado al uso del cannabis y de la planta de cannabis(Decreto No. 1138), 27 October 2025, arts. 1, 3, 4, 13, 16 and 17.Colombia, Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social.Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Por la cual se adopta el Estatuto Nacional de Estupefacientes y se dictan otras disposiciones(Ley No. 30), 31 January 1986, art. 2, lit. ñ (Diario Oficial No. 37.335, 5 February 1986).Colombia.Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Por la cual se expide el Código Penal(Ley No. 599), 24 July 2000, art. 375 (Diario Oficial No. 44.097, 24 July 2000).Colombia.Retrieved 15 October 2026.