Cannabis — Guatemala

Cannabis is illegal in Guatemala, including small amounts for your own use. Buying or possessing it for personal consumption is a crime under the Ley contra la Narcoactividad (Decreto 48-92), punishable by four months to two years in prison plus a fine. There is no published quantity you can rely on: whether what you are carrying counts as personal consumption is judged by the authorities after they seize it, and if it is not accepted as personal use the far heavier trafficking article applies. The US State Department also lists cannabis and medicines containing CBD among the products prohibited from entering the country.

Possession for personal consumption (art. 39, Decreto 48-92): four months to two years in prison plus a fine of Q200 to Q10,000. If the quantity is not accepted as personal use, the trafficking article applies instead: art. 38, covering acquiring, storing, transporting, supplying or selling, carries twelve to twenty years plus a fine of Q50,000 to Q1,000,000. Growing cannabis (art. 36) carries five to twenty years plus a fine of Q10,000 to Q100,000. The UK Foreign Office states that there are severe penalties for drug trafficking and the use of drugs, and that Guatemalan prisons are overcrowded, violent and dirty.