Is CBD legal in Pakistan?

Legal status

A cannabidiol extract is a narcotic drug under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, even though cannabidiol is named in no schedule. CBD is caught, by a chain of definitions rather than by a schedule entry. Section 2(r) defines medicinal hemp as 'any extract or tincture of hemp'. Section 2(q)(i) makes medicinal hemp a manufactured drug. Section 2(s) makes every manufactured drug a narcotic drug. A cannabidiol extract is an extract of hemp.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. CBD reaches a band only through what it is made from. Where the material is plant cannabis the section 9(1) table applies directly, at row 1 for Bhang, row 3 for Charas and row 4 for Hashish oil and liquid Hashish. Where it is an isolate, Schedule-I does not name cannabidiol and the section 9(1) table has no row for medicinal hemp, only for Bhang, Post or poppy straw, Charas, Hashish oil and liquid Hashish, Opium, Heroin and morphine, and Cocaine, so the residual applies and section 16 gives three years and fine. Neither route reaches a capital band and neither reaches life for an isolate. Death is not available. Act No. XXXVIII of 2023, section 2, assented on 2 August 2023 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, on 5 August 2023, removed every death reference from section 9. The words at the heroin and morphine band of 6000 grams or more and at the cocaine band of 5000 grams or more were omitted, and the Pakistan Code now prints a bracketed omission mark where they stood. In the fourth proviso to section 9(2) the words 'may be death or' were replaced by 'shall be'. The word death survives twice in the whole fifty page Act and both are procedural. Because death is unavailable, the question whether it is mandatory does not arise. The ceiling is life, and section 9A(3) says what that means: 'Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for time being in force, imprisonment for life under this Act means imprisonment in jail for the period of twenty-five years.' Section 9A(2) bars probation and parole, and section 9A(1) bars remission except for a juvenile or a female convict.

If prescribed or medical

Where a prescription for CBD exists at all, rule 2(1)(xxix) says what it has to be: 'a written direction by a practitioner that a stated amount of a drug of abuse be dispensed for the person named therein'. Section 6 prohibits possession and the rest 'except for medical, scientific or industrial purposes in the manner and subject to such conditions as may be specified by or under this Act or any other law for the time being in force'. The conditions are the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, which run a registration, licence and permit system under rules 5 to 18. Rule 14 provides for permits in relation to first-aid kits and rule 15 for programmes for medical and scientific purposes, and rule 11 governs import, export and transit permits. A traveller carrying a prescribed medicine should hold the prescription and the dispensing label, in the prescriber's name, and should expect the quantity to be measured against the section 9 bands if the substance is scheduled.

Documentation

On cannabidiol the second instrument is the wider of the two. Entry 1 of the Schedule to the Hadd Order reaches 'The leaves, small stalks and flowering or fruiting tops of the Indian hemp plant', which is wider than section 2(d) of the Act, since section 2(d) excludes 'the seed and leaves when not accompanied by the tops'. Article 4 of the Hadd Order punishes owning or possessing any intoxicant with up to two years, or whipping not exceeding thirty stripes, and fine. Judgment, and deferred: whether a purified cannabidiol isolate is still 'an extract or tincture of hemp' once the cannabinoid that makes hemp an intoxicant has been removed. The Act does not say, and no threshold appears anywhere in it for cannabis, in contrast to the 0.2 per cent morphine floor in section 2(t) and the 0.1 per cent cocaine floor in section 2(h).

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