Are Barbiturates legal in Solomon Islands?

Also known as: barbs

Legal status

Restricted as a poison, with sale by or under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. Barbiturates are a class slug and are answered by the range of one Poisons List entry, not by any single member. Schedule B Part I of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act (Cap. 105), reprint as in force at 5 February 2024, lists 'Barbituric acid; its salts; derivatives of barbituric acid; their salts; compounds of barbituric acid, its salts, its derivatives, their salts with any other substance.' The Act names no individual barbiturate, and whether a particular drug is a derivative of barbituric acid is a chemical question the Act does not state. That barbiturates are by definition the derivatives of barbituric acid is chemical background from outside the instruments read, and no verdict rests on it beyond the printed names listed below. The Poisons Rules in the 1996 Revised Edition do name members one by one. Their First Schedule repeats the class entry ('Barbituric acid, its salts, derivatives of barbituric acid, their salts, compounds of barbituric acids, its salts, its derivatives, their salts, with any other substance', printed page 3014), and their Fourth Schedule prints these entries whose printed names contain 'barbitone', 'barbiturate' or 'barbituric': Allobarbitone (printed page 3019); Amylobarbitone (3020); Aprobarbitone (3020); Barbitone (3021); Butobarbitone (3023); 'Calcium 5-Allyl-5-N-Butylbarbiturate' (3023); Cyclobarbitone (3024); Heptabarbitone (3028); Hexobarbitone (3028); Metharbitone (3033); Methylphenobarbitone (3033); Nealbarbitone (3034); 'Pentbarbitone' (3036, with 'Pentobarbitone Sodium' beneath it); Phenobarbitone (3036); 'Phenylmethylbarbituric Acid' (3036); Quinalbarbitone (3038); 'Quiuidine Pheuylethylbarbiturate' (3038, quoted as printed); Secbutobarbitone (3039); 'Secbutibarbitone Sodium' (3039); Thialbarbitone (3041); and Vinbarbitone (3042). Most of these also print a sodium or calcium salt as a further entry. 'Butalbital' (3022) and 'Thiopentone Sodium' (3041) are printed without any such syllable, and no instrument read states their chemical class, so they are not counted. The verdict states the Poisons List position of the 2024 text; the prescription rule in the Fourth Schedule is described in the prescription field, where its current force is stated as not established. Section 52(2) makes it unlawful to sell or deal in a listed article except in the manner the Act prescribes. This is a pharmacy sale control and not a drug control entry. No barbiturate is named in the Dangerous Drugs Act (Cap. 98, reprint as in force at 1 October 2009) or in the proclamations LN 101 of 1987 and LN 6 of 1988 as read from the page images; methaqualone is named there, and no instrument read states its chemical class. Because the Dangerous Drugs Act is delegated and later proclamations were not all read, this is a finding about the Poisons List regime only. A reported Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2025 was not read. The margin of printed page 2824, where the second proclamation is printed, reads LN 61/1988, while the heading on page 2821 and the 2025 Rules cite LN 6 of 1988.

Consequences if caught

Sale and dealing: section 52(2) states 'It shall not be lawful for any person to sell or deal in any of the several articles included in Schedule B hereto hereinafter referred to as the Poisons List, except in the manner prescribed in this Act', and section 56(1)(a) allows a Part I poison to be sold only by an authorised seller of poisons, on premises registered under section 55, by or under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. Section 56(2)(a) requires the buyer to be certified or known to be a person to whom the poison may properly be sold, with the proviso that no poison is sold or delivered to a person under twenty one years, and section 56(2)(b) requires a Poisons Book entry signed by the purchaser. Section 54(c) bars any Poisons Licence for Part I poisons. Import: section 52(1) makes importing any poison unlawful except under a licence issued by the Board, with a proviso for qualified medical practitioners, registered pharmacists, qualified veterinary surgeons and qualified dentists importing for bona fide treatment. Penalty: section 52(5) states 'Any person acting in contravention of this section shall be liable to a penalty of 5,000 penalty units', and for a continuing offence a further 300 penalty units for each day after conviction. A breach of section 56 with no specific penalty falls under section 62(1), 'a penalty of not more than 3,000 penalty units', and 600 penalty units a day for a continuing offence. These are fines stated without imprisonment. Possession and use by a member of the public: the Pharmacy and Poisons Act as read states no offence of possessing or using a poison. Manufacture, cultivation and export: no offence is stated beyond the general rule making power in section 61. The Pharmacy and Poisons Act states no death penalty. The Act does not state the value of a penalty unit and none is converted here. These are the Pharmacy and Poisons Act penalties only. Whether a proclamation not read applies the Dangerous Drugs Act to this substance is not established.

If prescribed or medical

The medicines route is in the Pharmacy and Poisons Act. Section 57(1) states that the poisons sale restrictions do not apply 'to a medicine which is supplied by a qualified medical practitioner for the purposes of medical treatment' or 'to a medicine which is dispensed by a registered pharmacist at his place of business', or to a poison forming part of the ingredients of such a medicine, subject to the labelling and prescription book requirements in section 57(2) to (5). Section 61(1)(b)(ii) lets the Board make rules prohibiting retail sale of Part I poisons except on a prescription, and rules of that kind are in the 1996 Revised Edition of the Poisons Rules. Rule 11(1) of the Poisons Rules (printed page 3004) reads 'It shall not be lawful to sell any poison included in the Fourth Schedule to these Rules except on and in accordance with the prescription given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist or a qualified veterinary surgeon in the form provided by this rule'. The Fourth Schedule prints the entries set out in the status field, from Allobarbitone (printed page 3019) to Vinbarbitone (printed page 3042); 'Butalbital' (3022) and 'Thiopentone Sodium' (3041) print no barbiturate syllable and are not counted. Rule 11(2) applies the rule to a sale even where the sale is exempted by section 57 of the Act, but not to a sale exempted by section 58. The Poisons Rules were read as printed in the 1996 Revised Edition, whose margin notes run to LN 63 of 1988. The 2024 reprint of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act still carries section 61, the power to make rules, and its endnotes show sections 16 to 26, 28 to 32 and 35 repealed by Act No. 5 of 1997 and other sections amended in 2009 and 2023, but the reprint does not print the Rules and nothing read says they were amended or revoked, so the current force of rule 11 and the Fourth Schedule is not established.

Documentation

Section 52(1) of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act makes importing any poison unlawful except under a licence issued by the Board, with a proviso for qualified medical practitioners, registered pharmacists, qualified veterinary surgeons and qualified dentists importing for bona fide medical, veterinary or dental treatment, and section 52(5) states the penalty of 5,000 penalty units. No traveller's personal supply exemption is stated in the sections read, so none is established. The import authorisation scheme of the Dangerous Drugs Act applies only to drugs to which Part III applies, which is not shown for this substance.

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