Nepal’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to create a regulatory framework covering cannabis cultivation for medical, scientific, agricultural, horticultural, and industrial purposes, The Kathmandu Post reports. The decision, which was issued in May 2025 but only recently made public, directs the government to establish the regulations within three months.
The regulations must include licensing, cultivation, production, processing, storage, use, sale, distribution, and import and export for the specified purposes but also be consistent with the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the nation’s Narcotic Drugs Control Act.
“The government shall, within three months of receiving this order, make the necessary legal arrangements, including regulations, standards and procedures, and establish a system for controlled cultivation and production of cannabis under the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act, 1976. This must include a strict regulatory and monitoring mechanism governing the licensing of commercial cultivation, production, processing, storage, use, sale, distribution, import and export for medicinal, scientific, agricultural, horticultural and industrial purposes, while prohibiting unauthorized activities.” — The May 18, 2025 decision via The Kathmandu Post
The ruling does not legalize broader adult-use sales and consumption, which the court said were not explicitly allowed by current law and had wider economic and social implications.
“The government has been authorized by the legislature to make rules to implement these provisions. It is therefore the duty of state authorities to formulate such rules without delay,” the court wrote in the verdict. “The failure to do so amounts to a refusal or neglect by the government to discharge its legal obligations.”
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