Is Alcohol legal in Côte d'Ivoire?

Legal status

Legal and regulated by Loi n° 64-293 du 1er août 1964 portant code des débits de boissons et des mesures contre l'alcoolisme, as amended: selling or offering drinks of groups 3 to 5 to anyone under 18 in a bar or public place, or any alcoholic drink for consumption on the spot to a child under 14, is banned (article 83) with a fine of 300,000 to 1,500,000 francs (article 84); manifest public drunkenness carries a fine and up to 10 days (article 67), rising for repeat offences to two months to one year (articles 68, 72 and 73); not a controlled drug, as at the INCB Green List 36th edition

Consequences if caught

Alcohol is legal in Côte d'Ivoire and regulated by Loi n° 64-293 du 1er août 1964 portant code des débits de boissons et des mesures contre l'alcoolisme, as amended by Loi 70-726, Loi 74-719 and Loi 99-437. Article 1 sorts drinks into five groups: group 2 is fermented undistilled drinks, « le vin, la bière, le cidre, le poiré, l'hydromel » and local drinks such as palm wine and millet beer, and groups 3 to 5 are fortified wines, liqueurs, rums and other spirits. Article 83 bans selling or offering drinks of groups 3, 4 and 5 to anyone under 18 in bars and other public places, and selling or offering any alcoholic drink for consumption on the spot to a child under 14; the fine is 300,000 to 1,500,000 francs, rising to 600,000 to 3,000,000 francs with two months to one year possible for a repeat within five years (article 84). Bars may not admit an unaccompanied person under 18 (article 86). Being found manifestly drunk in a street or other public place carries a fine of 800 to 8,000 francs and up to 10 days, or one of the two (article 67); a first repeat within twelve months carries 10 days to two months and a fine of 2,000 to 72,000 francs (article 68); a further offence within twelve months of a second conviction carries 1 to 6 months (article 72); and a repeat of that offence within five years carries two months to one year (article 73). A bar operator or employee who serves someone manifestly drunk faces a fine of 2,000 to 72,000 francs and 10 days to two months (article 69). Article 11 of the drug law, on driving under the influence of a drug, does not name alcohol. The maximum penalty under the provisions read is imprisonment. No Convention list adopted by Loi n° 2022-407 du 13 juin 2022 portant lutte contre le trafic et l'usage illicites des stupéfiants, des substances psychotropes et leurs précurseurs, which repealed Loi 88-686 of 1988, names it (INCB Yellow List 65th edition July 2026, Green List 36th edition 2025, Red List 23rd edition July 2025), and no classification of it under article 2 or 46 of that law was found, so the drug law's terms, 5 to 10 years for trafficking and 1 to 3 months for holding for one's own use, do not reach this row.

If prescribed or medical

Not a prescription matter.

Documentation

The drinks code was read on 3 October 2026 in the retyped consolidated copy at loidici.biz, which lists Loi 70-726 of 31 December 1970, Loi 74-719 of 27 November 1974 and Loi 99-437 of 6 July 1999 as the amending texts; it was not checked against a Journal officiel printing, and the civlii.laws.africa record for Loi 64-293 returned HTTP 404. Article 1 places « café, thé » among the non-alcoholic drinks of group 1. The fines quoted are as the loidici text prints them. Ethanol is not a scheduled substance in the Green List 36th edition 2025, the Yellow List 65th edition July 2026 or the Red List 23rd edition July 2025; the string occurs in them only inside other chemical names such as piperazineethanol and benzenemethanol, and inside the trade name Pethanol, a pethidine product. Loi n° 2022-407 du 13 juin 2022 names no substance itself. Article 45 provides « Les tableaux visés par la présente loi sont les tableaux actualisés issus des Conventions internationales sur les stupéfiants, les substances psychotropes et leurs précurseurs ratifiées par la Côte d'Ivoire », and article 46 lets the ministers responsible for drugs and for health classify any other plant or substance by joint arrêté. Article 1 defines a stupéfiant as a substance in the four tables of the 1961 Single Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol, « ou toute autre substance mise sous contrôle international ou national », and a substance psychotrope as one « inscrite aux tableaux 1, 2, 3 et 4 de la convention des Nations unies sur les substances psychotropes de 1971 ». Article 2 classes as stupéfiants or psychotropes the plants and substances placed in « tableaux 1, 2 et 3 » by the Conventions, their preparations, and « toutes autres plantes et substances dangereuses pour la santé, en raison des effets nocifs et selon la gravité du risque pour la santé publique que peut entrainer leur abus »; the text read does not say whether that last clause works by itself or only through an article 46 arrêté. The law repealed Loi 88-686 of 1988 (article 47).

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Côte d'Ivoire’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.