Is Cannabis / THC legal in Sri Lanka?

Also known as: weed, marijuana

Legal status

Dangerous drug under Sri Lanka's Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Chapter 218): Third Schedule, Part I, Group B, Section 1, item 26, 「Cannabis the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant (resin not extracted)」, with item 27 「Cannabis Resin, Extracts and Tinctures」. The entry is confined to the flowering or fruiting tops with the resin not extracted, so stalk and seed are outside it, and the separated resin, extracts and tinctures are caught by item 27 instead. The model: the list is inside the Ordinance and the power to change it is delegated, with a parliamentary lock on the delegation. Section 48 provides that 「the drugs, substances, articles or preparations, specified for the time being in Groups A, B, C, D and E in Part I of the Third Schedule, shall be deemed to be dangerous drugs」. Section 2(1) then provides that 「regulation」 means a regulation made under this Ordinance and published in the Gazette, 「and includes the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Schedules」, so the Third Schedule is itself a regulation. The empowering section is section 80. Section 80(2)(b) lets the Minister make regulations 「for adding any item to or deleting any item from, or altering, varying or amending in any other way, any of the lists or Groups of poisons and dangerous drugs set out in the First and Third Schedules」, and section 80(3) then provides that 「No regulation so made shall have effect unless it has been approved by Parliament and notification of such approval has been published in the Gazette」. So the delegation is real but it is locked to an affirmative vote, and in practice the 2022 changes were made by primary legislation rather than by regulation. The Act was last amended by the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 7 of 2026, certified 6 March 2026. The Third Schedule was last amended by section 6 of the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 41 of 2022, certified 23 November 2022 and published as a supplement to Part II of the Gazette of 25 November 2022, which substituted Group B of Part I and the whole of Part III. Act No. 7 of 2026 does not touch the Third Schedule.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. [Certain] Re-derived in this pass: section 54A was read at nddcb.gov.lk on 21 September 2026. 54A(a) names only «heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium», and cannabis is not among them. [Likely] Carried from the published entry and not re-derived: cannabis has its own ladder in Part III of the Third Schedule whose top band is 100 kilogrammes or above and carries a fine, so the ladder stops short of a capital tier. Section 54A(1) has four limbs and they do not carry the same exposure. Limb (a) punishes any person who 「manufactures any of the following dangerous drugs, namely heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 with 「a sentence of death or life imprisonment」, with no quantity stated. Limbs (b), (c) and (d) punish trafficking, importing or exporting, and possession, of 「any dangerous drug set out in Column II of Part III of the Third Schedule in excess of the amount set out in the said Column II」, with the penalty in Column III. Part III Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, and Column I is headed 「Traffics, possess, imports or exports」, so possession is inside the same ladder as trafficking. Section 54B extends the same punishment to abetting, attempting and acts preparatory to or in furtherance of a section 54A offence. Since Act No. 7 of 2026 a parallel section 54AA applies the same two structures on the high seas, aboard a ship registered in Sri Lanka or a stateless ship. Part III, as substituted in 2022, sets only two capital bands. Opium at 1 kilogramme or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」, and 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 5 grammes or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」. Cannabis has a ladder in Part III whose top band is 100 kilogrammes or above and carries ten to fifteen years, with no capital band at all. No other substance appears in Column II anywhere. Cannabis is the one substance in Part III with a quantity ladder and no capital band at the top of it. Sri Lanka also runs a licensed Ayurvedic route: cannabis is used in registered Ayurvedic preparations under licence, which is a carve out no other Part III substance has. Neither reaches cannabis, and this is the one substance where that statement rests on Part III itself rather than on absence from it. Cannabis has its own ladder in Part III and the ladder stops short: the top band is 「100 kilogrammes or above」 and carries a fine of two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rupees and ten to fifteen years, then 5 to less than 100 kilogrammes at five to ten years, 1 to less than 5 kilogrammes at two to five years, and under 1 kilogramme at one to two years. There is no death band and no life band anywhere on it. Cannabis is also outside section 54A(1)(a), which names only heroin, cocaine, morphine and opium, so no quantity and no conduct reaches a capital sentence for cannabis under this Ordinance. What a hundred kilogrammes does reach is fifteen years.

If prescribed or medical

Cannabis is supplied for licensed Ayurvedic preparation. There is no Western medical cannabis programme and no licensed cannabis medicine.

Documentation

The Ayurvedic route is institutional and licensed. It is not a traveller route, and it does not extend to an isolated cannabinoid.

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