Is Smoking Cannabis Legal in Spain? What the Law Says in 2026

Personal cannabis use in a private home, with no impact on third parties, is neither a crime nor an administrative infringement. The privacy of the home remains protected as long as there is no sale, no shared consumption with third parties and no cultivation intended for trafficking.

No. Consuming or possessing cannabis on public roads, in public spaces or in public establishments is a serious infringement of the Citizen Security Law (Organic Law 4/2015), punishable with a fine of 601 to 30,000 euros, even if it does not amount to a crime.

The law does not set an exact number. Discreet home growing strictly for personal use is not a crime, but the number of plants, the estimated yield or any sign of distribution can turn it into an offence against public health (art. 368 CP).

Carrying small amounts for personal use is an administrative infringement, not a crime. The dividing line lies in the signs of trafficking: the quantity, division into doses, cash or scales can lead to a charge of an offence against public health.

Consuming or possessing cannabis in a public place, road, public establishment or on public transport is a serious administrative offence (infracción grave) under art. 36.16 of Organic Law 4/2015 on the Protection of Public Safety, punishable by a fine of 601 to 30,000 euros. In practice, fines for personal quantities usually sit at the lower end, near the 601-euro minimum, and the amount is graded according to the quantity seized, prior record and the specific circumstances. This is a fine, not a criminal record: it is imposed by the administrative authority, not by a criminal court.

The line is the purpose of the possession: cannabis held for your own consumption is at most an administrative offence under art. 36.16 of Organic Law 4/2015, while cannabis intended to be sold, shared with or handed to third parties (promotion, favouring or facilitation of consumption) is the crime of drug trafficking under art. 368 CP. There is no fixed legal weight that automatically turns possession into a crime; courts infer the intent to traffic from indicators such as the total quantity, how it is divided into doses, cash, scales, and whether the person is a habitual user. Because cannabis is legally classed as a drug that does not cause serious harm to health, the trafficking penalty is markedly lower than for hard drugs.

Because cannabis is legally classed among drugs that do not cause serious harm to health, trafficking in it is punished under art. 368 CP with one to three years' imprisonment and a fine, as opposed to the three-to-six-year range that applies to hard drugs. Where the conduct is of minor significance and the offender's personal circumstances so justify, the court may apply the attenuated subtype of the second paragraph of Art. 368 CP and lower the sentence by one degree. Aggravated forms, for example a notably large quantity or trafficking within or near a school, raise the penalty under art. 369 CP.

Cannabis social clubs operate in a legal grey area: there is no law authorising them, and consolidated Supreme Court doctrine treats an organised structure that cultivates, stockpiles and distributes cannabis to an open or indeterminate number of members as drug trafficking under art. 368 CP, even without profit and even if a person must join first. The narrow exception recognised by case law is genuine shared consumption among a closed, identifiable group of established adult users, which may be treated as atypical (non-criminal); a club that functions as a stable supply system for changing members falls outside that exception. Membership therefore does not by itself guarantee legality.

For the administrative fine, art. 36.16 of Organic Law 4/2015 is a serious offence that, under the same law, becomes time-barred one year after it is committed, while an already-imposed serious sanction expires after two years. For the crime of drug trafficking under art. 368 CP, the ordinary limitation period is five years, given that the maximum penalty for cannabis (three years) places it among offences that prescribe in that timeframe under art. 131 CP. A first-time minor caught with cannabis in public can also have the fine suspended if they agree to undergo treatment or re-education, under the Fifth Additional Provision of Organic Law 4/2015.