Drug Possession vs Trafficking in Spain: Where Is the Line? (2026)

Not for personal possession. Carrying drugs for your own use is an administrative infringement under the Citizen Security Law (Organic Law 4/2015), punishable by a fine of 601 to 30,000 euros, with no criminal record. Prison only comes into play if there are signs of trafficking, which is a criminal offence under art. 368 CP.

There is no exact amount written in law. The Supreme Court uses the National Toxicology Institute reference for a 5-day personal supply (for example, above roughly 7.5 grams of pure cocaine or 100 grams of cannabis a court may presume trafficking), but the amount is weighed together with packaging into doses, scales, cutting agents, large amounts of cash and phone evidence.

In pure substance. 10 grams of cocaine at 20% purity is only 2 grams of actual cocaine. Challenging the purity analysis with an independent counter-analysis is often decisive, because it can move a case from aggravated to basic charges, or from trafficking to personal use.

Under art. 368 CP, 1 to 3 years in prison for soft drugs (cannabis, hashish) and 3 to 6 years for drugs that cause serious harm to health (cocaine, heroin, MDMA). The aggravated quantity (notoria importancia, art. 369.1.5 CP) raises cocaine to 6 to 9 years. For addicts with no prior drug convictions and a sentence under 5 years, prison can be suspended through a rehabilitation programme.

Possessing or consuming drugs in a public place for your own use is not a crime but a serious administrative infringement under art. 36.16 of Organic Law 4/2015 (Citizen Security Law), punishable by a fine of 601 to 30,000 euros. The penalty is administrative, so there is no criminal record and no risk of prison; under art. 80 of the same law the fine may be suspended if the person agrees to submit to a treatment or rehabilitation programme. Consumption or possession inside a strictly private home is generally outside the scope of this provision.

No. Simple possession or use of drugs for yourself is handled through the administrative route (art. 36.16 of Organic Law 4/2015) and does not generate a criminal record (antecedentes penales). A criminal record only arises where the conduct amounts to a drug-trafficking offence under art. 368 CP, meaning acts of cultivation, production, or trafficking, or otherwise promoting, favouring, or facilitating consumption by others. The dividing line is not the mere fact of possession but whether the evidence points to intent to supply third parties.

Art. 369 CP raises the penalty to the one immediately higher in degree (pena superior en grado) where specific circumstances exist, such as a notably large quantity (notoria importancia), distribution to minors under 18 or persons in treatment or rehabilitation, adulteration that increases the harm, acts near schools or treatment centres, or the offender holding a relevant office. Art. 369 bis CP covers membership of a criminal organisation dedicated to trafficking, and art. 370 CP applies the highest tiers where, for example, the quantity is of extreme importance or minors are used, allowing the penalty to be raised by one or two degrees above that of art. 368 CP. For hard drugs an art. 369 aggravation reaches up to nine years, and the art. 370 hyper-aggravated types can exceed nine years.

The limitation period depends on the maximum penalty for the specific offence under art. 131 CP. Trafficking in soft drugs (art. 368 CP, prison one to three years) prescribes in five years, while trafficking in hard drugs (art. 368 CP, prison three to six years) prescribes in ten years because its maximum penalty exceeds five years without exceeding ten. An art. 369 aggravation of a hard-drug offence, whose maximum reaches about nine years, likewise prescribes in ten years; only the most severe types whose maximum penalty exceeds ten years, such as art. 369 bis membership or art. 370 hyper-aggravated conduct, are subject to the fifteen-year period. Time runs from the day the offence was committed and is interrupted when proceedings are formally directed against the suspect (art. 132 CP).

Cultivation is expressly listed in art. 368 CP as a trafficking offence, so growing cannabis is a crime when it is intended for supply to third parties. Consolidated case law accepts that cultivation strictly for the grower's own consumption may fall outside art. 368 CP, but the burden of showing genuine self-supply is demanding: the number of plants, the projected yield, packaging, scales, or cash all serve as indicators of an intent to traffic. So-called cannabis social clubs do not create a safe harbour, and organised shared cultivation and distribution has repeatedly been treated as falling within art. 368 CP.