Medical cannabis in Costa Rica

Is medical cannabis legal in Costa Rica?

Yes. Law 10113 has passed and medical cannabis is legal in Costa Rica.

What has not caught up is supply. Pharmacy availability is still moving through the administrative process that follows any new law. The law is in place; the shelves are behind it.

Can tourists get medical cannabis in Costa Rica?

Tourists and visitors with a qualifying medical condition can be assessed by a Costa Rican cannabis specialist and receive a certificate stating that they qualify for treatment under Law 10113.

You complete the required documentation and consult a cannabis-certified physician, who reviews your file and determines whether you qualify. Start it before you travel — a two-week visit is not long enough to discover the paperwork exists.

Most of our visiting patients are American and Canadian. Americans arrive from states with medical marijuana programs and from states with none at all. Canadians usually arrive already holding a legal authorization at home. Both are assessed the same way, under the same Costa Rican law, by the same physicians — and neither is turned away for arriving without paperwork.

What conditions qualify for medical cannabis in Costa Rica?

The Ministry of Health lists fourteen conditions that qualify outright, and beyond those it is the treating physician’s clinical discretion — so most conditions can qualify, depending on the doctor and the file.

This is the part no other source explains. A list of fourteen looks like a closed door. It is not one: the law leaves the judgement with the physician, which is exactly why the assessment matters.

Does my medical marijuana card work in Costa Rica?

Not as a prescription — but it is valuable supporting documentation, and it helps establish that you qualify.

This applies to an American state medical marijuana card, a Canadian medical cannabis authorization, and a prescription from any other country. None of them lets a Costa Rican pharmacy dispense to you. All of them are evidence that a physician has already assessed your condition and judged cannabis appropriate — which is exactly what your doctor here needs to see.

Bring it. Every other source tells you a foreign card is "not recognised" and stops there, which is true and useless. The useful half is that it still counts as evidence in your assessment.

What is a medical cannabis certificate, and what do I receive?

A Cannabis Specialist Consultation Certificate: a signed document stating that you consulted with a MEDEC-CR trained cannabis specialist and qualify for treatment under Costa Rica Cannabis Law No. 10113 — with the physician’s name, credentials and licence number on it.

It also carries the recommended routes of administration — flower, tinctures, edibles, heated and non-heated inhalers — together with your doctor’s own dosing instructions. Every patient receives it in both English and Spanish, so there is a Spanish-language document on hand wherever one is needed.

• It is not a prescription you can fill today. It is filled through an authorised pharmacy once inventory is available.
• It is not insurance. It does not place you above the law and it does not guarantee an outcome.
• It is a qualified physician’s assessment of your case, in writing, with their licence number on it — the difference between a patient a specialist has seen and one who has not.
• Do not cross international borders with cannabis products, including CBD. The certificate says so, and it matters.

For most people the value is simpler than any of that. Travelling is stressful enough. Knowing a doctor here has read your file and written down where you stand takes one thing off the list.

Do I need a Costa Rican doctor if I live in Costa Rica?

Yes. A prescription written abroad has no standing in the Costa Rican system, and a physician who is not registered here cannot write you one.

For a visitor that is a document problem, solved before they fly. For a resident it is an ongoing-care problem — dose adjustments, follow-ups, renewals, and one medical record that a Costa Rican pharmacy and a Costa Rican physician can both work from.

Expats who have managed their own cannabis use for years are usually the most surprised by this. Long experience with a product is not the same as having a physician here who can document and supervise it. If Costa Rica is where you live, this is where your file needs to be.

How long is the consultation?

Thirty minutes for a first consultation, fifteen for a follow-up, by video.

Can I buy medical cannabis at a pharmacy in Costa Rica yet?

Not yet. The supply chain is behind the legislation, and the delay is administrative rather than medical.

Nobody involved controls the timing. The medical assessment is not waiting on any of it and can be completed now.

Why are patients in Costa Rica self-medicating?

Because the law passed before the supply chain was ready, which leaves patients without a legal route and many of them effectively forced to self-medicate.

This is well documented and not unique to Costa Rica. Canada, Australia, Germany, Israel and most states in the United States all legalised ahead of supply, and patients there went months or years choosing their own product, strength and dose with no physician reading their file. Any American or Canadian who was using cannabis before their own law caught up will recognise exactly where Costa Rica is right now.

That is a gap created by administrative delay, not a failing of the patient, and it is the gap this clinic exists to close.

Why see a doctor if cannabis is not in the pharmacies yet?

Because the risks of cannabis are specific and a physician catches them by reading your file — interactions with prescription medicines, conditions where cannabis is the wrong choice, and dosing, which matters far more than most people expect.

Someone self-medicating is making those calls alone, usually with no idea the questions exist. An assessment does not restrict you. It tells you what you are dealing with, and it puts it in writing.

Which doctors can assess you for medical cannabis in Costa Rica?

Physicians certified by MEDEC-CR, Costa Rica’s first and leading professional association for cannabis clinical practice — and both of its co-founders are Cura Vida physicians.

They are Dr. Abraham Benavides, M.D., our Medical Director and the author of more than 800 published articles on cannabis medicine, and Dr. Hanzel Larios.

Our prescribing physicians — Dr. Luis Andrés Chacón Dengo, Dr. Sebastián Waugh and Dr. Valeria Rojas — each hold the MEDEC-CR Advanced Certified Cannabis Medicine Professional (M-ACCMP) credential, and all are registered with the Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos.

Does Cura Vida sell cannabis?

No. Cura Vida does not supply, sell or source cannabis.

We provide the medical assessment and the certificate — what the law asks of a patient, and what a pharmacy will require.