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No, weed is not legal in Bora Bora. Cannabis offences there are French criminal offences, because Bora Bora is not a country and does not make its own criminal law. What has changed, and what most English-language guidance still gets wrong, is that French Polynesia legalised therapeutic cannabis and low-THC CBD for itself in 2024 and began licensing cultivation in 2026.
This guide explains which laws apply in Bora Bora, the penalties, the new medical framework and what visitors should expect.
Is weed legal in Bora Bora for recreational use?
Recreational weed is illegal in Bora Bora and across French Polynesia, with no tolerated amount. Cannabis is a controlled narcotic and both using it and possessing it are criminal offences.
That prohibition sits alongside a large informal reality. Locally grown cannabis, known throughout the territory as paka or pakalolo, is cultivated at scale across the archipelagos. French Polynesia accounted for roughly a third of all cannabis plants seized across France in 2024, from a population of under 300,000, which tells you both that the plant is everywhere and that enforcement is heavy.
Availability is not tolerance. Eradication operations run regularly, and a single two-week operation in early 2025 destroyed more than 7,000 plants and put nearly 400 people under investigation.
Which country’s laws apply in Bora Bora?
French law, for anything to do with cannabis. This is the point that most pages about Bora Bora get wrong, and it is worth being precise about.
Bora Bora is a commune in the Leeward Islands. It is part of French Polynesia, which is an overseas collectivity of France with a substantial degree of autonomy. Bora Bora itself has no legislative power whatsoever.
French Polynesia does have real legislative power, but not over this. Under its statute of autonomy, criminal law, criminal procedure and public order are reserved to the French State, while health and pharmacy are territorial competences.
So the offences, the penalties and the prosecutions are French, handled through the courts in Papeete, while the regulation of medicines and substances for health purposes belongs to French Polynesia.
One further consequence is worth noting. French Polynesia is an overseas country and territory rather than part of the European Union, so EU law, including the free movement rules that shaped the CBD position in mainland Europe, does not apply there.
What are the penalties under Bora Bora weed laws?
Penalties are those of the French Penal Code and the Public Health Code, and they are severe on paper.
Using cannabis is an offence in its own right under the Public Health Code, carrying up to a year’s imprisonment and a fine. Note the structure: the use itself is chargeable, not only possession.
Transporting, holding, offering, transferring, acquiring or using cannabis illicitly is a separate and much heavier offence under the Penal Code, with a statutory maximum of ten years and a very large fine. Production and cultivation carry more again, and importation more still. Importation also exposes a traveller to a parallel customs offence, so the same act can be prosecuted on two tracks.
Those are statutory maximums for the offence category, not the tariff for a small amount. A documented Bora Bora case from July 2026 gives a realistic sense of the lower end: a man stopped at a road check, later found with a small quantity of methamphetamine, two cannabis plants and cash, received two years with one suspended plus treatment and work obligations.
Penalties at a glance
| Conduct | Governing code | General penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Using cannabis | Public Health Code | Up to 1 year and a fine |
| Transporting, holding, acquiring, offering or transferring | Penal Code | Up to 10 years and a very large fine |
| Offering or transferring for someone’s personal use | Penal Code | Up to 5 years, more where a minor is involved |
| Production or cultivation | Penal Code | Up to 20 years, more for organised offending |
| Importation | Penal Code and customs code | Up to 10 years, prosecutable on both tracks |
Is medical marijuana legal in Bora Bora?
Yes, in principle, and this is the part of the picture that has genuinely changed. Most guidance about French Polynesia still says medical cannabis is illegal there. That is out of date.
French Polynesia used its own health competence to pass a loi du pays in August 2024 covering non-narcotic cannabis and cannabis-based medicines.
Implementing orders followed in February 2025, setting out the testing method, the cultivation standards and the categories of product that may be sold. Recreational use was expressly excluded; the health minister framed the law as being about medical provision.
The framework moved from paper to ground in 2026. In August the territorial government homologated five low-THC cannabis varieties for cultivation, all below the 0.3% THC ceiling, with only catalogued varieties permitted to be imported and grown.
Nine producers were selected for a pilot, supplied with plants by the agriculture department, with cultivation subject to siting rules and visual screening, and first harvests hoped for in 2027.
So the accurate position is that a therapeutic framework exists and is being built out, while recreational cannabis remains a criminal matter.
Is CBD legal in Bora Bora?
CBD is lawful in French Polynesia below 0.3% THC, under the same 2024 law, but it is a regulated market rather than an open one.
Manufacturers and packagers must make a prior declaration to the territorial economic affairs directorate, and the declaration number must appear in the batch number on every packaged product. The implementing orders also define which product categories are permitted, with smoking products regulated along tobacco lines, and restrict importation to therapeutic medicines.
Do not assume a CBD product bought elsewhere can simply be carried in. Border control is a French State competence while CBD authorisation is territorial, and that seam is exactly where travellers get caught.
Can you smoke weed in Bora Bora as a tourist?
No, and there is no resort exception. Bora Bora has a gendarmerie brigade, road checks happen, and visitors are subject to the same French criminal law as residents.
Foreign-ministry advice is unhelpfully thin here, which is itself worth knowing. Australia’s advice correctly notes that a mix of French and local laws applies and that penalties for drug offences include fines and imprisonment. The UK advice for French Polynesia contains no drugs guidance at all, and the US page warns only in general terms. Silence in an advisory is not reassurance.
The practical risk for a visitor is buying locally. Paka is widely available, which makes it feel low-stakes, and it is not.
The bottom line on cannabis in Bora Bora
Weed is illegal in Bora Bora because French criminal law applies there, and the penalties are French ones, prosecuted in Papeete. Local cannabis is everywhere and enforcement is heavy, with the territory accounting for about a third of France’s cannabis plant seizures.
Medical cannabis and low-THC CBD are now lawful under a French Polynesian law passed in 2024, with licensed cultivation beginning under a pilot scheme, but none of that touches recreational use. For a visitor, the only safe assumption is that nothing about the holiday setting changes the law.
Last reviewed: September 28, 2026. Cannabis laws change frequently, always verify current rules with official sources before you travel.
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