Is Cannabis / THC legal in Malta?

Also known as: weed, marijuana

Legal status

Cannabis is governed by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101, and it remains a Chapter 101 drug. Malta runs two drug ordinances and a cell that answers from one when the substance sits in the other is wrong. What changed in 2021 did not move it out of Chapter 101. Articles 2, 7, 8 and 22 and the Fifth Schedule carry the control, and the Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment) Act, Chapter 537, carries the personal and association allowances at articles 4A, 7 and 7A. The Authority on the Responsible Use of Cannabis Act, Chapter 628, being Act LXVI of 2021 as amended by Act XII of 2025, establishes the regulator and nothing more; the operative possession, cultivation, storage and association limits are in Chapter 537. Chapter 631 is not a cannabis statute and citing it for cannabis is a common error in English accounts, because Chapter 631 is the Pre-Insolvency Act. The operative words read "possession... not exceeding seven grams"; "cultivation of up to four plants"; "not more than fifty grams of dried cannabis". Cannabis remains a Chapter 101 drug, but Chapter 537 creates age-, place-, quantity-, and licensing-limited personal and association regimes rather than general legalization. The power to amend the Fifth Schedule is article 34(3).

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Malta has no death penalty and no Maltese drug offence can bring one. The ceiling is life. Dealing or possession that is not for the exclusive use of the possessor can reach life under Chapter 101 article 22, and cannabis is still a Chapter 101 drug. What the 2021 reform did was carve conditional exclusions into that framework, and it is not legalisation. Chapter 537 article 4A makes adult personal possession not exceeding 7 grams non-criminal, and sends more than 7 grams and not more than 28 grams to the Commissioner for Justice with a penalty of between €50 and €100. Article 7 protects up to four plants and not more than 50 grams of dried cannabis at the adult's registered residential address, subject to visibility, nuisance, minor access and location conditions, and the four plant cap is per residence rather than per adult. Article 7A permits registered nonprofit member organisations limited to 7 grams per member per day and 50 grams per member per calendar month. Outside those limits the ordinary position returns: public consumption, consumption in the presence of a minor, unlicensed supply and trafficking all remain unlawful, and a tourist has no registered residential address in Malta and cannot join an association on arrival.

If prescribed or medical

The ordinance that controls cannabis is the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101, which is the narcotics ordinance rather than the medical one. The penalty article does not attach its ceiling to possession as such. Chapter 101 article 22 reaches dealing and possession that is not for the exclusive use of the possessor, so a supply lawfully dispensed to you and held for your own use is not the conduct the ceiling is written for. That is a statement about the offence definition and not a permission. Chapter 537 is a treatment statute rather than a prescribing one, and its articles 4A, 7 and 7A create adult personal allowances rather than a medical supply route, so they are not the answer to a prescription question. What this source does not establish is the prescribing and dispensing conditions themselves. The dossier read the two controlled drug ordinances and Chapter 537 and says in terms that it ‘did not attempt to decide separate medicines, pharmacy, veterinary, poisons, tobacco, alcohol, food, product-safety, or driving laws’. Treat the prescribing route as unread here rather than as absent. No Maltese personal import permit, traveller certificate or advance declaration route for a controlled medicine was found in the texts that were read, and none of Chapter 31, Chapter 101 or Chapter 537 carries a travellers provision. That is an absence in what was read rather than proof that no scheme exists, so confirm with a Maltese mission before you travel.

Documentation

There is nothing you can carry that extends Malta's cannabis allowances to a visitor. The allowances turn on being an adult with a registered residential address in Malta, or on membership of a registered nonprofit association, and no document substitutes for either. A foreign prescription, a foreign medical cannabis card and a foreign association membership are all outside the Maltese scheme, which is defined by residence and registration rather than by paperwork you bring with you. No import route for cannabis appears in the texts read for this row, and confirming with a Maltese mission before travel is the only way to settle a specific case. The provenance is the consolidated English text of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101, the Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment) Act, Chapter 537, and the Authority on the Responsible Use of Cannabis Act, Chapter 628 on Legislation Malta, read on 18 September 2026 at https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/101/eng and https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/537/eng and https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/628/eng. The amendment horizon is 18 September 2026, and on that date the consolidated texts stood at Chapter 31 through Legal Notice 46 of 2026, Chapter 101 through Legal Notice 97 of 2025, Chapter 537 through Acts VII and XII of 2025, and Chapter 628 through Act XII of 2025. Legislation Malta prints the footer ‘© Dritt tal-awtur: L-Uffiċċju tal-Avukat tal-Istat’ on each page, no open reuse licence was located, and only the words needed to identify the provision are quoted here.

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