Is Ayahuasca legal in Ghana?

Legal status

Controlled under the Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 1019) through its DMT. Seventh Schedule Part 2 item 6 names «N,N - Dimethyltryptamine (DMT)» and item 8 names «Harmaline», and the Act defines a psychotropic substance as «any substance specified in the Seventh Schedule or anything that contains a substance specified in that Schedule». That ayahuasca is a brew whose DMT comes from Psychotria viridis or a similar leaf and whose harmala alkaloids come from Banisteriopsis caapi is a botanical fact brought from outside the text; harmine itself is not named. The plants are also within the definition «"narcotic plant" means vegetation that has psychotropic qualities», which sections 39 to 42 use. Read in the official parliamentary text on 3 October 2026. This is stated as the Schedules stand after the Narcotics Control Commission (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1100), which the judy.legal consolidation records as the Act's only amendment and whose Bill substitutes section 43 alone; the enacted text of Act 1100 was not itself read. The power to move the lists is in section 112: its subsection (1) gave a power to revise the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Schedules within twelve months of commencement, and its subsection (2)(b) gives a continuing power to make Regulations specifying «the classification of drugs and the appropriate penalties». The only Regulations found under the Act, L.I. 2475 of 2023 on cannabis cultivation, revise no Schedule on their table of contents, and this does not rule out a later instrument that was not found.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Act 1019 prints no sentence of death. Its Second Schedule, read from the page images, sets these bands: possession for use under section 37(2)(a), a fine of not less than two hundred and not more than five hundred penalty units, with not more than fifteen months' imprisonment in default; possession for trafficking under section 37(2)(b), importation or exportation under section 36 and prohibited business under section 38, each a fine of not less than ten thousand and not more than twenty five thousand penalty units and imprisonment of not less than ten and not more than twenty five years, with three years in default; and purchase under section 45, which by section 45(2) includes purchase for personal use, a fine of not less than two thousand and not more than ten thousand penalty units or imprisonment of not less than four and not more than ten years. Possession for trafficking means a quantity «in excess of a quantity which can reasonably be used by an individual in a day». Section 50 requires life imprisonment where a person found guilty of a narcotic offence has been convicted «on more than one previous occasion» of an importation, exportation, processing, sale, manufacture, distribution, cultivation or supply offence. Cultivating a plant from which a narcotic drug can be extracted is a separate offence under section 39, with a fine of not less than two thousand and not more than ten thousand penalty units or imprisonment of not less than five and not more than ten years, and two to five years in default.

If prescribed or medical

No religious, ceremonial or medical exemption for ayahuasca or DMT was found in Act 1019.

Documentation

Sections 36(1) and 40(1) require a licence to import a narcotic drug or a narcotic plant. No traveller allowance was found in Act 1019.

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