A general introduction to cannabis law in Colombia

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Introduction

This chapter was first published in September 2023. Be advised that some of the below content may no longer apply.

Medical use of cannabis was approved in Colombia by Law 1787/2016, which created a regulatory framework to allow safe and informed access to cannabis for medical and scientific use. This Law also laid the regulatory foundations for the country's cannabis industry. However, recreational use of cannabis is not authorised in Colombia yet, despite possession of a personal dose of any drug having been decriminalised since 1994.¹

Cannabis and its derivatives are classified as psychoactive or non-psychoactive according to the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) present. Vegetable material and derivatives containing more than 1 per cent THC are classed as psychoactive and are only approved for medical and scientific purposes.²

Law 1787/2016 was regulated through Decree 613/2017 and Resolutions 2891/2017 and 2892/2017, which stipulated the different kinds of permitted activities, the corresponding licences and the entities responsible for issuing these.

Since the approval of Decree 613/2017, a total of 3,621 applications have been made to the Ministry of Justice and Law for licences for the use of seeds and plants. The year 2019 saw the highest number of applications and these decreased considerably in the following years. Of the applications submitted, 2,419 were granted, 502 were archived or denied and the rest were modified. The most requested licence is for the cultivation of non-psychoactive plants, as shown in the table below.³

Certain relevant terms are defined in law as follows:⁴

1. 'cannabis': the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant, other than the seeds and leaves not attached to the tops, and from which the resin has not been extracted (by whatever name it is known);
2. 'cannabis plant': botanical individuals of the genus Cannabis sativa L., with a defined root system and development process, which can be used to obtain sexual or asexual seed, grain, plant components for industrial purposes or cannabis derivatives;
3. 'grain': mature fertilised ovum, retaining all its components, intended to be processed, ground, minced, crushed or cooked, among other methods, for the extraction of its oils and other properties, which may not be used for the sowing of cannabis plants;
4. 'hemp': cultivation of the cannabis plant whose THC content (including its isomers, salts and acid forms) is less than 1 per cent by dry weight, subject to the licensing regime for the cultivation of non-psychoactive cannabis plants;
5. 'non-psychoactive cannabis': the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant, other than seeds and leaves not attached to the tops, and from which the resin has not been extracted (by whatever name it is known), with a THC content of less than 1 per cent by dry weight (including its isomers, salts and acid forms);
6. 'non-psychoactive cannabis derivatives': oils, resins, tinctures and crude, purified or processed extracts obtained from cannabis or plant components whose THC content (including its isomers, salts and acid forms) is less than 1 per cent by weight, to be used for industrial, medical or scientific purposes irrespective of the cultivar from which they are obtained;
7. 'psychoactive cannabis': the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant, other than the seeds and leaves not attached to the tops, and from which the resin has not been extracted (by whatever name it is known), whose THC content is equal to or exceeds 1 per cent on a dry weight basis (including its isomers, salts and acid forms);
8. 'psychoactive cannabis derivatives': oils, resins, tinctures and crude, purified or processed extracts obtained from cannabis or the plant component whose THC content (including its isomers, salts and acid forms) is equal to or more than 1 per cent by weight, to be used for medical or scientific purposes irrespective of the cultivar from which they are obtained;
9. 'seed source': pre-existing seeds for sowing, already in the Colombian territory, and for which cultivar data sheets were submitted by 31 December 2018 to the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) to obtain registration as a selected seed producer (it was not possible to add cultivar data sheets as a seed source after this date);
10. 'seeds for sowing': mature fertilised ovule (sexual seed) or any other vegetative part of the plant (asexual seed) used for sowing, propagation or marketing; and
11. 'vegetable component': any part of the cannabis plant, taken individually, other than cannabis, including fibres obtained from the plant.