Is Cannabis / THC legal in Taiwan?

Also known as: weed, marijuana

Legal status

Category 2 narcotic (第二級毒品) under Taiwan's Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), named at 附表二第24項「大麻（Cannabis、Marijuana、Marihuana）」. The entry carries its own carve out: 「不包括大麻全草之成熟莖及其製品（樹脂除外）及由大麻全草之種子所製成不具發芽活性之製品」, mature stems and their products excluding resin, and non viable seed products. Resin, extract and tincture are separately listed at items 25, 26 and 27. The model: the four grades and their anchor substances are in the Act itself, article 2(2) reading 「毒品依其成癮性、濫用性及對社會危害性，分為四級，其品項如下」, and the full item lists are the Act's own four schedules, 附表一 to 附表四. The power to change them is delegated. Article 2(3) reads 「前項毒品之分級及品項，由法務部會同衛生福利部組成審議委員會，每三個月定期檢討，審議委員會並得將具有成癮性、濫用性、對社會危害性之虞之麻醉藥品與其製品、影響精神物質與其製品及與該等藥品、物質或製品具有類似化學結構之物質進行審議，並經審議通過後，報由行政院公告調整、增減之，並送請立法院查照」, a review committee of the justice and health ministries reviewing every three months, adjustment by Executive Yuan announcement, reported to the Legislative Yuan. The Act was last amended 4 May 2022. The list was last amended by the Executive Yuan announcement of 25 June 2026, in force 27 June 2026, which moved etomidate and eight related compounds from Category 2 up to Category 1.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: article 15, and only where the offender is a civil servant abusing office. [Certain] Re-derived in this pass: articles 4 and 15 were read at law.moj.gov.tw on 21 September 2026. Article 4(2), the limb that reaches a Category 2 narcotic, provides «life imprisonment or a minimum ten-year fixed-term imprisonment» and no death penalty at all. Article 15 provides that «civil servants convicted of committing offenses described in Article 4 Paragraph 2 or Article 6 Paragraph 1 under the pretexts of their authority, opportunities, or means given to the position shall be punished with a death penalty, or life imprisonment». That is the only route by which death reaches this row, and it is unavailable to an ordinary offender. Article 4(1), which does carry death on its own wording, reaches Category 1 only and this substance is not in Category 1. Article 4(2) punishes manufacture, transport or sale of a Category 2 narcotic by life imprisonment or ten years upward, with a fine of up to NT$15 million. Article 5(2) punishes possession with intent to sell by five years upward. Article 10(2) punishes use by up to three years. Article 11(2) punishes simple possession by up to two years, and article 11(4) raises that to six months to five years once the pure weight reaches 20 grammes. Article 8(2) punishes transfer by six months to five years. Article 9(1) increases the penalty by up to one half where an adult sells to a minor, and article 9(2) does the same where the buyer is known to be pregnant. Article 19 confiscates the property used in an article 4 offence and, for an article 4 offence specifically, the vehicle, vessel or aircraft used. Cultivation has its own article and its own lighter tier. Article 12(2) punishes growing cannabis with intent to supply drug manufacture by five years upward, against life or seven years upward for the opium poppy and coca at article 12(1). Possession of cannabis seed is up to one year under article 14(4). Life reaches this substance directly and the death penalty reaches it by one route, so the common statement that capital exposure in Taiwan is confined to Category 1 is wrong here. Life comes from article 4(2), 「製造、運輸、販賣第二級毒品者，處無期徒刑或十年以上有期徒刑，得併科新臺幣一千五百萬元以下罰金」, life or ten years upward for manufacture, transport or sale, with no weight threshold. The death penalty comes from article 15(1), 「公務員假借職務上之權力、機會或方法犯第四條第二項或第六條第一項之罪者，處死刑或無期徒刑」: a public official who abuses the power, opportunity or methods of office to commit an article 4(2) offence faces death or life. Article 4(2) is the Category 2 trafficking limb, so what the death penalty turns on there is the offender's status rather than the drug's grade, and for anyone in that position the exposure is real. A separate point concerns the charge rather than the substance: article 9(3) reads 「犯前五條之罪而混合二種以上之毒品者，適用其中最高級別毒品之法定刑，並加重其刑至二分之一」, so an offence involving a mixture of two or more graded narcotics is charged at the statutory penalty of the highest grade among them with up to one half added, and a Category 1 component brings the whole charge under article 4(1). Neither the life route nor the death route is mandatory; each offers the court a choice.

If prescribed or medical

Cannabis is 第二級管制藥品. Taiwan runs no medical cannabis programme, and there is no domestic licensed cannabis medicine.

Documentation

The mature stem and non viable seed carve out is the only thing a traveller can rely on, and it does not cover resin. Hemp food products are the practical edge case and they turn on the tetrahydrocannabinol limit, not on the cannabis entry.

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