Random Situations When You Get Caught With Pot In Foreign Countries (15 items)

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  (#7) North Korea

  • Pyongyang

  It's hardly surprising that a country as isolated, insular, and highly secretive as North Korea has kept mum about their feelings surrounding weed. Rumors abound that the country is something of a "weed smoker's paradise," with pot widely available at public markets and smoked openly pretty much wherever and whenever a smoker decides to light up. But a lax attitude toward weed consumption doesn't mean it's legal. "There should be no doubt that drugs, including marijuana, are illegal here," a Swedish diplomat living in North Korea told Business Insider. "One can't buy it legally and it would be a criminal offense to smoke it." The consequences of such an offense, however, are unknown.
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  (#4) Netherlands

  • Amsterdam

  The popular image of the Netherlands (specifically, Amsterdam) as the freewheeling drug capital of the world is something of a myth. Drugs, including weed, are not at all legal anywhere in the Netherlands. In the case of marijuana, it is simply tolerated by the law and law enforcement. Since 1976, the Dutch have been allowed to smoke weed in "coffee shops," and you can possess up to five grams without being arrested, but this is not the same as full legalization. It's more accurate to describe it as the government simply turning a blind eye. You can legally buy sex, though!
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  (#10) China

  • Beijing

  China has long been a country invested in image. And the image of a drug user, even if that drug is weed, is almost universally unwelcome in China, and the country's cannabis laws reflect that. If you're caught with pot, you stand the chance of being sent to a government-run rehab facility. But these are not cushy, Betty Ford-style digs. According to the New York Times, "the minimum stay is two years, and life is an unremitting gauntlet of physical abuse and forced labor without any drug treatment."
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  (#9) Japan

  • Tokyo

  If you think Malaysia's pot laws are tough, just wait till you hear about Japan. Japan frowns mightily on drugs of any kind, and weed is no exception. If you're nabbed with even a small amount of cannabis (less than a gram), you can be sentenced to five years of hard physical labor. The nation's drug laws are largely an influence of the American occupation of the 1940s and 1950s. Cannabis itself, specifically hemp, actually have a long history in Japan, but puritanical, World War II-era American attitudes about the substance have mostly buried its historical significance.
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  (#11) Malta

  • Valletta

  As of 2018, marijuana is still technically illegal in Malta. The Mediterranean island nation has decriminalized small amounts of weed, however, and you can possess up to 3.5 grams without fear of arrest. But more liberal pot laws may be in store. In November of 2017, the Maltese government took their first steps toward legalizing medical marijuana. The law proposes that any medical doctor would have the capability to prescribe weed to patients who need it.
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  (#1) Georgia

  • Tbilisi

  On July 30, 2018, the country of Georgia reviewed its constitution and ruled that "consumption of marijuana is an action protected by the right to free personality" and citizens cannot be given citations for possessing the drug. 

  Citizens are still unable to cultivate or sell the product, but simply possessing cannabis is completely legal. This makes Georgia one of the countries with the most liberal cannabis policies on Earth – only Canada and Uruguay are more lax with the substance.

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