Is Cannabis / THC legal in Belize?

Also known as: weed, marijuana

Legal status

Cannabis and cannabis resin is printed in Belize's Misuse of Drugs Regulations at Schedule I paragraph 1(a), in the Misuse of Drugs Act Chapter 103 volume of the Subsidiary Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 2020, which shows the subsidiary laws as at 31 December 2020. It follows the Cannabinol derivatives entry and precedes the line that runs Cathinone and Cocoa leaf together. That schedule's heading reads «CONTROLLED DRUGS SUBJECT TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF REGULATIONS 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25 AND 26.» The subsidiary law made under Chapter 103 therefore calls what it lists a controlled drug, and this substance is one of them. The Act defines cannabis at section 2(1)(e) to include any part of the plant of the genus cannabis, any resin obtained from that plant, and any product of which such resin forms a base. Cannabis is the one substance in this set whose treatment the subsidiary volume carries in full: the Misuse of Drugs (Cannabis Violation Tickets) Regulations, S.I. 28 of 2019, and the Misuse of Drugs (Industrial Hemp) Regulations, S.I. 54 of 2019 as amended by S.I. 75 of 2020, are both consolidated in it. What the volume cannot answer is how heavily this is punished. Section 27 takes the ordinary punishments from the Act's Third Schedule column by column according to class, and neither the Third Schedule nor the Second Schedule that assigns the class was in the material read. The schedule placement in this cell is read off the instrument and is not printed in the quoted dossier extract, which names the Act's schedules only as a range.

Consequences if caught

Section 7(1) of the Act makes it unlawful to have a controlled drug in your possession, section 7(2) makes that an offence, and section 7(3) makes possession with intent to supply a separate offence. Section 7(4)(e) sets sixty grammes of cannabis or cannabis resin as the presumption quantity, above which possession is deemed to be for the purpose of supply unless the contrary is proved. That figure was read in the 1990 text and sits next to an amendment this volume shows the effects of but does not reproduce, so it is the one presumption quantity here whose currency is least settled. Section 17 of the 1990 Act text sets one penalty for drug trafficking and for possession for the purpose of trafficking, and it does not vary by class. On summary conviction it is a fine of not less than twenty five thousand dollars rising to one hundred thousand, or three times the street value of the drug if that is greater, or imprisonment of not less than five years rising to ten, or both. On conviction on indictment it is a fine of not less than one hundred thousand dollars rising to five hundred thousand, or three times the street value, or imprisonment of not less than seven years rising to fourteen, or both. Cannabis is also the one substance in this batch with a ticketing regime printed in the same volume. The Misuse of Drugs (Cannabis Violation Tickets) Regulations, S.I. 28 of 2019, in force from 16 March 2019, let an authorised officer issue a violation ticket for three offences, and all three of them are about place or use rather than about ordinary possession: possession of not more than 10 grammes on the premises of an educational institution, smoking or otherwise using not more than 10 grammes outside the two places section 12 allows, which are another person's residence with that person's consent and private guest sleeping accommodation with the proprietor's consent, and possession of not more than 10 grammes in or near school premises or a rehabilitation centre. Regulation 6 sets the fine at one hundred dollars, regulation 7 gives fifteen calendar days to pay and adds ten dollars for every day it is late, and a violator who has neither paid within thirty days nor asked for a hearing is summoned to court. Ordinary possession of a small amount at home is not on that ticket schedule, and the reason it is not cannot be read off this volume. The ordinary possession maximum is not given here. Section 27 takes it from the Act's Third Schedule, column by column, according to whether the drug is Class A, Class B or Class C, and neither that schedule nor the Second Schedule that assigns the class was among the four instruments in the volume read. One caution about section numbers. The Act text read here is the Misuse of Drugs Act 1990, Act 22 of 1990, as UNODC holds it, and the current Chapter 103 has been renumbered since. The Cannabis Violation Tickets Regulations cite section 12 for the smoking offence the 1990 text puts at section 11, and section 18 for the school premises presumption the 1990 text puts at section 17, so the current numbering runs one ahead from about section 11. Section 7 is the possession section in both, which the ticket schedule confirms independently. The same amendments that renumbered the Act may also have changed what these provisions say, so every figure quoted here from the 1990 text is the figure as enacted in 1990 and its currency is not established.

If prescribed or medical

Schedule I is the heaviest of the five. Regulation 5 means a licence of the Minister is what makes production, supply or possession lawful, and the Schedule I heading brings in regulations 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25 and 26, which are the documentation, prescription form, register, destruction and record keeping duties. Regulation 4 does not exempt Schedule I from anything: its exceptions run to Schedules IV and V and to poppy straw only. So there is no ordinary dispensed medicine route for a Schedule I drug in Belize and nothing a traveller carries makes one. The Misuse of Drugs (Industrial Hemp) Regulations, S.I. 54 of 2019 as amended by S.I. 75 of 2020, define industrial hemp by reference to a maximum tetrahydrocannabinol concentration, and regulation 3 of those Regulations sets that maximum at 0.3 per cent.

Documentation

Carry a prescribed medicine in the pharmacy's original labelled packaging with the prescription and a letter from the prescriber naming the patient, the active ingredient, the dose, the quantity and the treatment period. Those papers evidence a therapeutic purpose; they are not an import authorisation, and the Regulations put import and export authorisations on the Minister's forms in Schedules VII to XI, issued to licence holders rather than to travellers. For this row the fact to carry is the printed entry itself: Cannabis and cannabis resin, at Schedule I paragraph 1(a). Cannabis returned twenty six occurrences in the subsidiary volume and sixteen in the 1990 Act text. The volume was read on 22 September 2026.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Belize’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.