Where is the Cannabis Emoji?
The cannabis leaf is recognized worldwide and used across medicine, culture, policy, and commerce. Yet there is still no official emoji.
- Verified supporters
- 7
- Verified supporters
- Countries
- 3
- Countries
- Organizations
- 3
- Organizations
Proposed design (CC0 1.0)
The gap
People Already Use Workarounds
People routinely use existing plant emoji as substitutes because there is no dedicated Cannabis emoji. None depict the distinct serrated seven-leaf shape or carry its cultural meaning.
The case
Why It Matters
Culture
A globally recognized symbol used for decades, from music and art to the annual 4/20 observance.
Medicine
Medical cannabis programs exist in numerous countries and jurisdictions, with patients and providers communicating about treatment daily.
Industry
The legal cannabis industry represents billions of dollars in annual economic activity across agriculture, retail, and research.
Communication
Millions of people discuss cannabis online every day, in medical, legal, agricultural, and cultural contexts.
In conversation
It Would Work in Combination
Unicode favors emoji that combine with others to express ideas no single emoji can. Here is how the proposed cannabis leaf would slot into everyday sequences.
The data
Global Evidence
More results than “elephant” (668 million), an emoji that has existed since 2010.
Source: Google Search, 2025 (documented in the Unicode proposal)
The world's most used drug after alcohol and tobacco, both of which have emoji.
Source: UN World Drug Report 2024
Medical programs now span every inhabited continent, from Canada and Germany to Thailand and South Africa.
Spanning agriculture, retail, pharmaceuticals, and industrial hemp. Industry estimates vary by methodology, from roughly $40B to $100B.
Search interest in “weed” has consistently exceeded “elephant” on Google Trends since 2004, and cannabis stickers and GIFs are widely used on WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Instagram, and Discord. That is cross-platform demand, despite the lack of a standardized code point.
The use case
What It Would Look Like in Use
These are mockups, not screenshots from the wild. But each one shows something people already do: reach for a cannabis leaf the keyboard doesn't have. A patient texting their doctor, a delivery update, an event invite. The same small gap turns up everywhere, in every country and for every reason people talk about cannabis.
Illustrative mockups.
The history
Timeline
- 2017–2019
Cannabis emoji proposals discussed and submitted by community members; none advanced to encoding.
- Apr 2, 2025
A Cannabis Leaf proposal by another submitter is declined by the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee.
- May 25, 2025
This campaign's comprehensive Cannabis Leaf proposal is submitted for review.
- Nov 20, 2025
The proposal is declined. Unicode does not reconsider declined emoji concepts for four years.
- 2026
CannabisEmoji.org launches to document demand and build a public evidence base.
- 2029
The four-year window closes and the concept becomes eligible for resubmission, backed by this campaign's evidence.
The submission
The Proposal
A comprehensive proposal was prepared and submitted to the Unicode Consortium for review on May 25, 2025.
A complete formal submission
Identification, sample images at 18×18 and 72×72 px, evidence of frequency, selection factors, and process statements, following Unicode's proposal format.
Category: Animals & Nature → Plant-Other
A stylized, seven-pointed cannabis leaf with serrated edges, in a simple iconic form consistent with existing leaf emoji. Keywords: weed, marijuana, herb, hemp, 420.
Multiple meanings documented
Medicinal, legal/political, recreational, cultural (4/20), and industrial hemp usage, each with sample sentences and audiences.
Breaks new ground
The first emoji for a psychoactive/medicinal plant, extending the substance repertoire beyond alcohol 🍷 and tobacco 🚬 to the world's most used drug.
Distinct at any size
The seven-point serrated fan-leaf silhouette is unmistakable at 18 px. Its shape and negative space stay unique next to 🍁 and 🌿.
Openly licensed
All proposed images are licensed CC0 1.0 with full IP ownership warranted, with no third-party trademarks involved.
Meeting the standard
Does It Meet Unicode's Bar?
Unicode evaluates every emoji against published selection factors. The proposal addresses each one. It satisfies the factors that argue for inclusion, and answers the factors used to exclude candidates.
Factors for inclusion
976M Google results for “cannabis OR weed”, more than 🐘 elephant (668M). 228M users worldwide.
Medicinal, legal/political, recreational, cultural (4/20), and industrial hemp: five distinct meaning clusters.
Combines naturally with health, legal, and celebration emoji to express compound ideas.
The first emoji for a psychoactive/medicinal plant, not a variation on something already encoded.
The seven-point serrated fan leaf is unmistakable even at 18 px (see below).
Closes a conspicuous gap: the only major adult substance with no emoji, alongside 🍷 and 🚬.
Legible at emoji size
Unicode requires an emoji to read clearly when tiny. Even at 18 px, the smallest size systems render, the silhouette stays distinct from its common stand-ins.
Factors for exclusion, and why they don't apply
Isn't 🍁 or 🌿 close enough?+
No. The maple leaf, herb, and broccoli emoji confuse the meaning. None depict the distinctive seven-pointed serrated cannabis leaf or carry its cultural and medical semantics.
Isn't a cannabis leaf too specific?+
No. A single symbol covers an entire plant category (medicinal, recreational, and industrial hemp), comparable in breadth to 🍇 grapes or 🌲 evergreen, not a product variant.
Won't this open the floodgates to drug emoji?+
No. Cannabis is a singular, globally recognized psychoactive plant. Adding it no more obliges further drug-plant emoji than 🍄 mushroom spawned a series of fungi.
Isn't it just a passing fad?+
No. Documented human use spans millennia, and the legalization trend plus annual 4/20 observance indicate enduring, growing relevance, unlike short-lived memes.
The proposal meets every documented inclusion factor and rebuts every exclusion factor, and was declined regardless. That is the case this campaign exists to revisit.
Where things stand
Current Status
A Cannabis Leaf proposal was declined by the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee on April 2, 2025. This campaign's own proposal, submitted on May 25, 2025, was declined on November 20, 2025.
Unicode currently does not accept reconsideration of declined emoji concepts for four years. Subsequent submissions for the same concept are therefore ineligible for review during that period.
The concept becomes eligible for resubmission in 2029. Every verified signature collected here strengthens the evidence base for that future submission.
Other Substances Are Already Represented
The emoji set has included adult substances and pastimes since 2010. The proposal argued that a cannabis leaf closes a conspicuous gap: the world's most used drug after alcohol and tobacco is the only one missing entirely.
Add your voice
Sign the Petition
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The movement
Supporters
7 verified supporters from 3 countries. Only supporters who opted into public display are listed. Email addresses are never shown.
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Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a cannabis emoji?+
No. As of 2026 there is no official cannabis or marijuana leaf emoji in the Unicode Standard. People substitute other plant emoji like 🌿 herb, 🍃 leaf, 🌱 seedling, or 🍁 maple leaf.
Why is there no weed emoji?+
Cannabis leaf proposals have been submitted to the Unicode Consortium several times, most recently in 2025. A proposal was declined on April 2, 2025, and a second, more comprehensive proposal was declined on November 20, 2025. Unicode does not state public reasons for individual declines.
What do people use instead of a cannabis emoji?+
Common stand-ins are 🌿 (herb), 🍃 (leaf fluttering in wind), 🌱 (seedling), 🪴 (potted plant), and 🍁 (maple leaf). None depict the distinctive seven-pointed serrated cannabis leaf.
When could a cannabis emoji be added to Unicode?+
Unicode does not reconsider declined emoji concepts for four years. Because a cannabis leaf proposal was declined in 2025, the concept becomes eligible for resubmission in 2029.
Are there emoji for other substances like alcohol or tobacco?+
Yes. Alcohol has had multiple emoji since 2010 (🍷 🍺 🍸 and more), tobacco has the cigarette 🚬, caffeine has ☕, and gambling has 🎰 🎲. Cannabis, used by an estimated 228 million people worldwide, is the only major one with no emoji at all.
How can I support adding a cannabis emoji?+
Sign the petition at CannabisEmoji.org. Signatures are verified by email, and the supporter count builds the evidence base for the 2029 Unicode resubmission.