Is it legal in Angola? Drug law, penalties and sources

What governs drugs in Angola

One statute governs. Lei n.º 3/99, de 6 de Agosto, published in the Diário da República I Série n.º 32 of that date, is titled the law on the trafficking and consumption of narcotics, psychotropic substances and precursors. Its article 45 repealed the colonial era instruments that preceded it, naming Decreto n.º 41718 of 1958, Decreto n.º 48153 of 1967, four articles of Decreto-Lei n.º 48547 of 1968 so far as they concerned drugs, and Decreto-Lei n.º 420/70.

The statute works through six annexed tables, and the first two are each split three ways, so the schedule runs I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, II-C, III, IV, V and VI. Which table a substance sits in decides the sentence, not the conduct alone. Tables I to IV hold the controlled drugs. Tables V and VI hold the precursors and are reached by a separate article.

Angola has no decriminalisation regime, no administrative commission and no possession threshold that makes conduct lawful. The quantity figures in this law do something narrower: they decide which criminal article applies.

The statute is Portugal's, and that is where accounts go wrong

Lei 3/99 follows Decreto-Lei n.º 15/93 of Portugal article for article. Trafficking sits at Angola's article 4 and Portugal's article 21. Precursors at 5 and 22. Aggravation at 7 and 24. Lesser trafficking at 8 and 25. The dealer who is also a user at 9 and 26. Abuse of a profession at 10 and 27. Consumption at 23 and 40. The conduct list in article 4(1) is the Portuguese list word for word, down to the phrase excluding the cases provided for in the consumption article.

The sentence ranges are Angola's own and are not Portugal's, so this is descent rather than identity. Angolan trafficking carries eight to twelve years where Portugal carries four to twelve.

The divergence that matters is at the consumption article. Portugal repealed its article 40 in 2000, keeping only cultivation, and replaced what was left in 2023 so that acquisition and possession for own use are now an administrative matter. Angola copied the original in 1999 and has not changed it. Article 23 is in force.

So the most repeated claim in drug policy, that a Portuguese model country decriminalises personal use, is false in Angola. Consuming, or growing, buying or holding for your own consumption, a substance in tables I to IV carries imprisonment of up to three months. Above the quantity needed for three days of average individual consumption it carries up to one year. The three day line decides the length of the sentence, and it never makes the conduct lawful.

A second quantity line sits in article 9. Where the sole purpose of otherwise trafficking conduct is to obtain the substance for personal use, the sentence drops to up to two years for tables I to III, but article 9(3) withdraws that relief once the quantity exceeds what is needed for five days of average individual consumption. Three days and five days do different jobs in the same statute, and conflating them is the commonest error made with this family of laws.

What the Supreme Court says the sentence is

The Supreme Court of Angola publishes judgments, and two of them state article 4's range in the court's own words. Both agree with the gazette, which is worth saying plainly because a statute and a court very rarely get to check each other on a page like this.

In Proc. n.º 4790/20, decided by the 3rd Section of the Criminal Chamber on 14 September 2023, the court wrote that the crime of narcotics and other unlawful activities is punished with an abstract penalty of eight to twelve years. The defendant had been found with ninety wraps of a cocaine derivative and twenty three pieces of crack totalling 6,5 grams, was convicted under article 4(1), and the eight year sentence was confirmed on appeal.

In Proc. n.º 5668/21, decided by the 2nd Section on 12 October 2023, the court used the same range for a seizure of 52 kilograms of cannabis. The sentence was five years, below the statutory minimum, because the first instance court had applied the extraordinary mitigation allowed by article 94(1) of the Penal Code of 1886.

Both defendants received a quarter of the sentence remitted under the amnesty law, Lei n.º 35/22, de 23 de Dezembro. Neither judgment names anyone. The court replaces every name with letters, so a reader can cite the process number and the date without identifying a person.

The penalty structure, by article

Every substance confirmed against a primary source

44 substances have a status for Angola verified against a named statute. Each row links to the full entry, with the consequences, the prescription position and the source.

Not separately listed

Sources

• Lei n.º 3/99, de 6 de Agosto, arts. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 23, 45 and the annexed tables, Diário da República de Angola, I Série, n.º 32 The official gazette, served as a scan with no text layer. Every article quoted here was read from the rendered page image as well as from optical recognition.
• Acórdão do Tribunal Supremo, 3.ª Secção da Câmara Criminal, Proc. n.º 4790/20, 14 de Setembro de 2023 The court states article 4's range in its own words. The judgment is anonymised by the court itself. Its listing page is numbered 4290/20 and the judgment it links is numbered 4790/20; the number used here is the one on the judgment.
• Acórdão do Tribunal Supremo, 2.ª Secção da Câmara Criminal, Proc. n.º 5668/21, 12 de Outubro de 2023 Applies the same range to 52 kg of cannabis, with extraordinary mitigation under article 94(1) of the Penal Code of 1886.
• Decreto-Lei n.º 15/93 of Portugal, for the comparison drawn above Cited only to show which Angolan article corresponds to which Portuguese one. No Angolan penalty on this page comes from it.

Statute text on this page is quoted from the copies linked above. Last verified September 16, 2026.