French Caribbean: The 500 Euro Cannabis Fine Is Now in Force

As of 31 August 2026, the on-the-spot fine for cannabis use in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint Martin is 500 euros. It was 200 euros a fortnight ago. If you are booked into Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France, or Marigot this autumn, the cost of a pocket search has more than doubled since your last trip.

What changed

LOI n° 2026-798 du 18 août 2026, the public order law known as RIPOST, was published in the Journal officiel on 19 August. Its Article 25 rewrites the final paragraph of Article L3421-1 of the Code de la santé publique, the provision that carries the offence of illicit drug use and the fixed fine that settles most cases without a court hearing.

Légifrance now serves a version of that article in force since 20 August 2026. The fixed fine is 500 euros. Pay it quickly and it drops to 400. Pay it late and it rises to 1,000. The figures it replaces were 200, 150, and 450, in place since April 2021.

What a court can impose has not moved. One year of imprisonment and a 3,750 euro fine remain the ceiling when a case goes before a magistrate instead of being settled on the spot.

Article 25 also adds a penalty that did not exist before. A person convicted of illicit drug use now faces suspension, for up to three years, of a driving licence or of the licence to operate a French motorised pleasure boat. The text specifies that the suspension cannot be limited to driving outside professional activity, and that it cannot be suspended, even in part.

We reported on 17 August that the increase had cleared its last constitutional hurdle and was not yet law. It is law now.

What it means for travelers

The 500 euro figure lands on visitors exactly as it lands on residents. There is no tourist rate and no discretion built into the amount. On a week in the French islands it is the difference between an expensive annoyance and a line item that reshapes the trip.

The boat licence provision deserves attention from anyone chartering in the Antilles. A conviction can now cost you the right to helm a French motorised pleasure craft for up to three years. How that reaches a visitor sailing on a foreign licence is not something the text settles, and we are not going to guess at it. If you are skippering a charter out of Marigot or Le Marin, treat cannabis aboard as a risk to the charter itself.

Saint Martin remains the sharpest edge on any of these islands. Walk from Philipsburg into Marigot with cannabis in your pocket and you cross from Sint Maarten into French penal law without passing a checkpoint, a sign, or a border guard. That walk now costs 500 euros instead of 200.

What to watch

One question is still open, and it is the same one we flagged a fortnight ago. Guadeloupe and Martinique are departments under Article 73 of the Constitution, where national law applies automatically, and nothing in the RIPOST law adapts Article 25 for them. Saint Martin is a collectivity, and the only place the law names it is Article 11, which authorises a future ordinance on the transport code. Nothing in Article 25 carves the collectivity out, and the Code de la santé publique has always applied there, so the 500 euro figure should follow. Confirmation from the préfecture in Marigot or the first reported fine at the new amount would settle it.

Watch also for how the licence suspension is applied in practice. It is a penalty a court hands down on conviction, not something attached to the fixed fine, so it will surface in prosecutions rather than in roadside stops. The first reported cases out of Fort-de-France will show how far magistrates take it.