Is weed legal in North Dakota?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is not legal in North Dakota. (N.D.C.C. § 19-03.1-05: Schedule I)

Marijuana (item g.) and tetrahydrocannabinols (item m.) are listed among Schedule I hallucinogenic substances. The only exceptions this section states for tetrahydrocannabinols are the allowable amount found in hemp or an allowed hemp product under chapter 4.1-18.1, and an FDA-approved prescription drug; nothing exempts personal adult use of marijuana itself.

North Dakota lists marijuana among its Schedule I substances and writes only two ways out of that list: the amount allowed in hemp, and a prescription drug federal regulators have approved. Neither of them reaches a person buying for their own use.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in North Dakota, serving patients the program registers. (N.D.C.C. § 19-24.1-01: Definitions (Medical Marijuana))

Section 19-24.1-01(16) lists 26 named qualifying 'debilitating medical conditions' (cancer, HIV, PTSD, epilepsy, anxiety disorder, and others) plus a catch-all for a chronic or debilitating disease producing listed symptoms. The program covers dried-flower, concentrate, and edible product forms with no single low-THC or CBD-only limitation, though a minor patient is restricted to 'pediatric medical marijuana' (cannabidiol capped at 6% THC) under subdivision 35 and 47.

North Dakota's registry has two tiers, and a card marked for the enhanced allowable amount raises the flower figures on both limits. The program covers dried flower, concentrate and edible forms rather than one preparation.

Hemp-derived products

North Dakota permits the sale of hemp-derived products and limits which ones. (N.D.C.C. § 4.1-18.1-04.4: Hemp commodities or products - Allowable products - Retailers)

Subsection 1 allows sale of hemp and hemp commodities or products 'allowed under this chapter,' subject to testing, a certificate of analysis, and THC-concentration labeling. Subsection 3 routes any cannabis- or hemp-derived product that is not an allowable hemp commodity or product to regulation under chapter 19-24.1 (the medical marijuana program) instead. Subsection 5 bars marketing a non-FDA-approved hemp-derived product as a dietary supplement, food, or beverage product, or with medical claims.

What North Dakota allows on a hemp shelf has been tested, carries a certificate of analysis, and states its THC concentration on the label. A hemp-derived product outside that definition falls under the medical marijuana chapter instead, and one without federal approval may not be marketed as a food, a drink or a supplement.

Home cultivation

North Dakota allows nobody to grow cannabis at home. (N.D.C.C. § 19-03.1-23: Prohibited acts - Penalties)

N.D.C.C. 19-03.1-01(16) defines 'Manufacture' to include 'the production ... of a controlled substance,' and (25) states that '"Production" includes the manufacturing, planting, cultivating, growing, or harvesting of a controlled substance' -- so cultivating marijuana is 'manufacture.' The (16) exception is limited to 'the preparation or compounding of a controlled substance by an individual for the individual's own use,' which does not name planting, cultivation, or growing. Manufacturing marijuana is a class C felony under 19-03.1-23(1)(c).

Growing is where North Dakota's program stops. State law counts cultivation as manufacturing a controlled substance, a class C felony, and the personal-use carve-out in that definition reaches no further than preparing and compounding.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as North Dakota states it: At any time a registered qualifying patient, or a registered designated caregiver on the patient's behalf, may not possess more than three ounces [85.05 grams] of dried leaves or flowers of the plant of the genus cannabis in a combustible delivery form, or more than five hundred milligrams of a cannabinoid edible product. A patient with a registry identification card authorizing an enhanced allowable amount may possess up to seven and one-half ounces [212.62 grams] of combustible flower. (N.D.C.C. § 19-24.1-01: Definitions (Medical Marijuana))

Outside this registered-patient allowance, N.D.C.C. 19-03.1-23(7)(d) makes any possession of marijuana at least an infraction (under one-half ounce), rising to a class B misdemeanor (one-half ounce to 500 grams) and a class A misdemeanor (over 500 grams); tetrahydrocannabinol has its own two-gram and six-gram tiers.

On buying, North Dakota states: During a thirty-day period, a registered qualifying patient may not purchase, or have purchased by a registered designated caregiver, more than two and one-half ounces [70.87 grams] of dried leaves or flowers in a combustible delivery form (six ounces [170.01 grams] with an enhanced-amount registry card), more than six thousand milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol in cannabinoid concentrate or medical cannabinoid product, or, at any time, more than three hundred ten milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol in a cannabinoid edible product. (N.D.C.C. § 19-24.1-01: Definitions (Medical Marijuana))

Outside this registered-patient channel, N.D.C.C. 19-03.1-23(1) makes it unlawful for any person to manufacture, deliver, or possess with intent to deliver marijuana, punishable under (1)(c) as a class C felony regardless of amount.

Each figure is tied to a form: combustible flower in ounces, concentrate and product in milligrams of THC, and an edible on a ceiling that applies at any time rather than across 30 days. An enhanced-amount card raises the flower numbers, while the milligram ceilings are written without one.

Minimum age

There is no recreational channel in North Dakota, so no recreational age applies. (N.D.C.C. § 19-03.1-05: Schedule I)

Null because marijuana's Schedule I classification, with no adult-use exception, means there is no adult-use channel, so no age applies.

North Dakota sets no minimum age for a patient. (N.D.C.C. § 19-24.1-01: Definitions (Medical Marijuana))

Section 19-24.1-03(2) requires, for an applicant who is a minor (under nineteen, per the (31) definition), 'the signature of the minor's parent or legal guardian with responsibility for health care decisions.' No provision states an age below which a minor may not be registered at all; a minor patient's usable marijuana is limited to pediatric medical marijuana under (47).

The word minor means under 19 in this program, and it changes how an application is made rather than whether one can be made. A parent or guardian with responsibility for health care decisions signs it, and what a minor patient may be given is limited to the pediatric preparation the statute defines.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed medical dispensary and a retailer of hemp-derived or CBD products. (N.D.C.C. § 19-24.1-01: Definitions (Medical Marijuana))

19-24.1-13(2) limits a dispensary's activities to purchasing from a manufacturing facility and 'dispensing usable marijuana to a registered qualifying patient, directly or through the registered qualifying patient's registered designated caregiver' -- the medical-dispensary channel. N.D.C.C. § 4.1-18.1-04.4: Hemp commodities or products - Allowable products - Retailers(1), also registered for this question, permits a person to sell allowable hemp commodities or products -- the hemp-cbd-retailer channel. N.D.C.C. § 19-03.1-23: Prohibited acts - Penalties(1), the third registered source, makes any other sale or delivery of marijuana unlawful, so no adult-use-dispensary channel is recorded. No registered source describes delivery to a patient's residence, so licensed-delivery is not recorded either.

A dispensary here buys from a licensed manufacturing facility and hands product to a registered patient, or to the caregiver that patient has registered, and to nobody else. Hemp retailers are the other lawful counter, and no source cited describes delivery to a home.

The North Dakota store list names every licensed location this site holds a record for.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.