Cannabis in Denmark

Denmark is often lumped in with the Netherlands as a place where cannabis is easy. It is not. Possession is illegal, dealing can bring years in prison, and the one famous exception, the open hash market on Pusher Street in Copenhagen's Freetown Christiania, was dug up in April 2024. What Denmark does have is one of Europe's more open medical schemes, made permanent on 1 January 2026.

The drug law is the Act on Euphoriant Substances, with tougher penalties for large-scale dealing in section 191 of the Criminal Code. Small amounts for personal use are normally handled by a fine. The Director of Public Prosecutions publishes the scale in its instructions to prosecutors (current edition CIR1H no. 9741 of 6 August 2026, with the bands set by Law no. 724 of 20 June 2025, in force since 1 July 2025): a first offense with up to 9.9 grams of hash is 2,000 kroner, 10 to 49.9 grams is 3,000 and 50 to 99.9 grams is 5,000. For marijuana the bands are wider, with 2,000 kroner up to 49.9 grams. Repeat offenses add 50% the second time and 100% from the third. A police warning instead of a fine is possible, and the prosecutors' guidance names foreign tourists as an example where a fine would cause disproportionate administrative trouble.

Where a repeat offense happens inside a targeted enhanced penalty zone, prison is the starting point rather than a fine, and a first offense there costs double. Copenhagen Police ran such a zone at Christiania from 10 January 2024 until it lapsed in January 2025. Selling is treated far more harshly: the instructions say sale is punished with imprisonment as a rule, and a small hand-over to a friend at a nightclub is a prison case. Products with more than 0.2% THC are treated like hash, so 1 millilitre of cannabis oil counts as 1 gram. HHC has been banned as a euphoriant since 3 May 2023, THC-P, HHC-P and a wider group of semi-synthetic cannabinoids since 6 September 2024, and 61 further synthetic cannabinoids since 29 March 2026.

The legal market is medical. The trial scheme that began on 1 January 2018 expired at the end of 2025 and was replaced on 1 January 2026 by a permanent Act on the Medical Cannabis Scheme. Any doctor may prescribe products listed in it, the doctor is not obliged to, and pharmacies are the only place they can be sold. Approved uses named by the Danish Medicines Agency include neuropathic pain, cancer pain, painful spasticity in multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury pain and chemotherapy nausea, and the agency recommends against treating anyone under 18. In 2025 there were 22,410 redeemed prescriptions for 2,465 people, up 64% and 54% on 2024, according to the Medicines Agency's percentages and Kristeligt Dagblad's counts.

Cost is partly covered. For patients without a terminal-illness certificate the state pays 50% of cannabis product spending up to 20,000 kroner over a 12-month period, so the patient pays up to 10,000 kroner, and nothing after that; terminal patients get full coverage, according to the Medicines Agency.

CBD is the other pressure point. Since 1 July 2018 cannabis-based products with up to 0.2% THC can be produced and sold without breaking the euphoriant-substances rules, but that only clears one hurdle. The Danish Medicines Agency says one should count on the large majority of CBD-containing products still being medicines, and the food authority says CBD has no novel-food authorization, so it cannot be sold as food or a food supplement. EFSA gave a first positive opinion on a synthetic CBD supplement in September 2026, but the European Commission has not decided. Only Sativex and Epidyolex are authorized CBD medicines.

Driving is the sleeper issue for visitors. The legal limit is 0.001 milligrams of THC per kilogram of blood, close to zero, with graduated penalties from a license point and half a month's pay in fines up to a three-year license loss. Verdex lists one verified operator, a Danish medical cannabis company whose products are on the Medicines Agency's scheme list. Nobody else qualifies: there are no shops, clubs or delivery services to list.