Is it legal in Spain? Drug law, penalties and sources

The criminal article never reaches private consumption

Article 368 of the Código Penal punishes those who carry out acts of cultivation, preparation or trafficking, or otherwise promote, favour or facilitate the unlawful consumption of toxic drugs, narcotics or psychotropic substances, or who possess them for those purposes.

The last seven words decide everything. Possession is criminal only when it is for those purposes. Possession for one's own consumption is not within the article, so it is not that the offence exists and is forgiven, or that a prosecutor declines to bring it. The criminal code simply does not reach it.

Where the article does apply, the penalty splits in two. Three to six years and a fine of one to three times the value of the drug where the substances cause grave harm to health, and one to three years and a fine of one to two times the value in the other cases. Spain has no lettered classes. Which side a substance falls on is decided in the case rather than set out in a schedule.

A second paragraph lets the courts impose the penalty one degree lower in view of the slight nature of the act and the personal circumstances of the guilty party, unless an aggravating circumstance from articles 369 bis or 370 applies.

Public consumption is an administrative matter, and the trigger is the place

The second act is not a drug law. Ley Orgánica 4/2015 on the protection of public security lists grave administrative infractions, and article 36.16 covers the unlawful consumption or possession of toxic drugs, narcotics or psychotropic substances, even where they are not intended for trafficking, in public places, ways, public establishments or collective transport, and the abandonment of the instruments used in those places.

Everything in that sentence after the words about trafficking is a location. The infraction is committed by where the conduct happens, not by whether the substance is held.

Article 36.18 does the same for cultivation. It covers acts of unlawful planting and cultivation in places visible to the public, where they are not a criminal offence. So cultivation out of public view, and not for trafficking, is reached by neither act.

Article 39 sets the sanction for a grave infraction at a fine of 601 to 30,000 euro. It is a fine and not a criminal record.

What this site does not state about Spain

Cannabis social clubs sit on the boundary of article 368's words about promoting, favouring or facilitating the unlawful consumption of another person, and that boundary has been drawn by the Tribunal Supremo rather than by the text. This page does not state the court's position, because no judgment was read for it and a summary of case law is not case law.

The substances themselves are not listed in either act. Both refer to toxic drugs, narcotics and psychotropic substances as categories, and the lists come from the international conventions and from separate Spanish instruments.

What each provision carries

Every substance confirmed against a primary source

83 substances have a status for Spain verified against a named statute. Each row links to the full entry, with the consequences, the prescription position and the source.

Not separately listed

Sources

• Código Penal, Ley Orgánica 10/1995, arts. 368 to 378 Consulted 16 September 2026.
• Ley Orgánica 4/2015 de protección de la seguridad ciudadana, arts. 36 and 39 Consulted 16 September 2026.

Statute text on this page is quoted from the copies linked above. Last verified October 3, 2026.