Cannabis — Belgium

Cannabis is illegal in Belgium - possessing or growing it is a criminal offence carrying a fine and possible prison. An adult 18 or over caught with 3 grams or less, or one plant, for personal use is the lowest prosecution priority and normally gets only a simplified police report, but that is a prosecutors directive rather than a law: it does not apply if you hold or use it openly in public, in or near a school, or at a bus stop or park close to one, and individual judicial districts can tighten it - Limburg, on the Dutch border, began issuing immediate fines to adults aged 24 and over caught with drugs in public on 1 January 2026. There is no legal way to buy cannabis anywhere in Belgium, cannabis flower cannot be dispensed even medically, and driving is zero tolerance.

Adult personal-use possession: a fine of 15 to 25 euro for a first offence, 26 to 50 euro on a repeat within a year, and eight days to one month in prison plus a fine of 50 to 100 euro on a further repeat within a year (Law of 24 February 1921, art. 2ter). Federal Justice states that fines expressed in euro must be multiplied by a coefficient of 8. Outside the personal-use tier, art. 2bis of the same law provides three months to five years in prison and a fine of 1,000 to 100,000 euro, rising to five to ten years and ten to fifteen years in aggravated cases. Driving is zero tolerance: a positive result means immediate confiscation of the driving licence and prosecution before the police court.