Is Buprenorphine legal in Solomon Islands?

Also known as: subutex

Legal status

Controlled. Buprenorphine is a named Part III drug. The schedule to the proclamation of 21 September 1987 (LN 101 of 1987), printed page 2821 of the 1996 Revised Edition, applies Part III of the Dangerous Drugs Act (Cap. 98, reprint as in force at 1 October 2009) under section 13(2) to a list that includes 'Buprenorphine' in its second column. Paragraph 4 of the same schedule extends Part III to 'any salt of a substance specified in any of paragraphs 1 to 3', so a salt is within the control, and paragraph 5 extends it to 'Any preparations or other product containing a substance of product specified in any of paragraphs 1 to 4, not being a preparation specified in Schedule 1'. No Schedule 1 appears in the pages read, so whether a given tablet or injection is inside or outside the control is not established. LN 6 of 1988 paragraphs (d) and (h) (printed page 2824) refer instead to 'the Schedule to the Proclamation referred to in paragraph (a)', so 'Schedule 1' in LN 101 paragraphs 5 and 9 may mean the paragraph 1 list of that Schedule; no instrument read states that reading. Buprenorphine is not in the Poisons List in Schedule B of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act as in force at 5 February 2024 (searched as 'Buprenorphine'), but the Fourth Schedule to the Poisons Rules (1996 Revised Edition) prints 'Buprenorphine' and 'Buprenorphine Hydrochloride' on printed page 3022. That is a prescription only sale rule under rule 11(1), separate from drug control and set out in the prescription field. Section 21(1) of the Act bars trade in products obtained from the phenanthrene alkaloids of opium that were not in medical or scientific use on 13 July 1931, unless the Minister proclaims otherwise; the instruments read do not say whether buprenorphine is such a product, so no view is given.

Consequences if caught

Buprenorphine as a Part III drug: Part III drugs carry these provisions. Personal possession: section 20 makes it an offence against the Act where a Part III drug is found in a person's possession or kept in any place other than the appointed store, unless he can prove that it was obtained under the authority of the Act, or in accordance with the prescription of a registered medical practitioner, or from a person having authority to sell it, or was deposited there without his knowledge or consent. The burden of proof is on the accused, and the section sets no quantity threshold. Possession for supply, sale and trafficking: the Act's text states no separate offence for these for Part III drugs. Sale and distribution are left to rules the Minister may make under section 15(1)(b), and the only rules located are the 2025 methylamphetamine rules, so for this substance a sale offence is not verified beyond the general offence in section 39(1)(a) of contravening the Act or a rule under it. Import and export: sections 14, 23, 25, 28 and 30 prohibit them except in accordance with sections 22 to 30, and section 3 limits entry and exit to a port approved by notice; a person exporting in contravention is also liable under section 35(2) to forfeit treble the value of the goods or 2,000 penalty units at the option of the Comptroller of Customs and Excise. Manufacture: section 15(1)(a) lets rules prohibit manufacture except on licensed premises, and no manufacture offence is stated in the Act's text itself. Cultivation: not applicable to a synthetic or manufactured substance. Use or consumption: the instruments read state no separate offence of use for Part III drugs, so possession under section 20 is the exposure. Administrative offences: section 39(1)(b) and (c) cover breach of licence conditions and false statements to obtain a licence. Penalty: no penalty is otherwise prescribed, so section 39(2) applies to each offence, namely on conviction by the court sitting with assessors a fine of 100,000 penalty units or imprisonment for ten years or both, and on summary conviction a fine of 5,000 penalty units or imprisonment for six months or both, with forfeiture of all articles in respect of which the offence was committed. Fine and imprisonment may be cumulative ('or to both'). Section 39(4) gives attempting, soliciting and inciting the same punishment, and section 39(3) requires the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions for proceedings under section 39(1)(a). The Act's drug provisions state no death penalty. The Act does not state the value of a penalty unit and none is converted here.

If prescribed or medical

The medical route is in the Dangerous Drugs Act itself. Section 15(1)(c) lets the Minister make rules regulating the issue of prescriptions containing a Part III drug and their dispensing, and section 15(2) requires the rules to authorise a pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist to retail, dispense or compound them in the ordinary course of business. Section 19 limits withdrawal from the store to a registered medical practitioner, licensed pharmacist, registered dentist, qualified veterinary surgeon, an approved plantation hospital attendant, or a person approved for recognised Mission medical work. Section 20 states possession in accordance with the prescription of a registered medical practitioner as a matter the accused may prove. Section 39(3) caps the punishment for an inadvertent breach of the prescription or book keeping rules at a fine not exceeding 100 penalty units without imprisonment. Rules under section 15 other than the 2025 methylamphetamine rules were not located, so the detailed prescription rules are not verified. The Pharmacy and Poisons Act (Cap. 105, reprint as in force 5 February 2024) also speaks to prescriptions for these drugs in its own text. Section 36(4) reads 'A prescription which does not comply with the provisions of this section shall not be accepted by any pharmacist as authority for the sale or supply of any medicine or drug'. Section 37(2) reads that every prescription 'containing any of the drugs to which any Act as to the sale of dangerous drugs, for the time being in force, relates, shall be retained in the custody of the pharmacist dispensing the same for a period of two years and filed in the pharmacy'. Section 38(c) provides that a pharmacist shall not 'permit any person, other than a registered pharmacist, to dispense or compound any prescription or supply any medicine or drugs containing any of the dangerous drugs to which subsection (2) of section 37 relates'. It is not a Poisons List article, but the Poisons Rules reach it by name. The Fourth Schedule prints 'Buprenorphine' and 'Buprenorphine Hydrochloride' with no exception (printed page 3022). 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'. Rule 11(2) applies it 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

Importing requires an import authorisation in Form C granted by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health and Medical Services under section 26, and section 28 provides that no dangerous drug shall be imported unless the person to whom it is consigned holds a valid and subsisting import authorisation. Section 29 requires an export authorisation or diversion certificate from a country party to the Convention to accompany the drug, and section 31 sets the transit conditions. The only exemption from the transit rules for quantities is in section 31(5), for quantities that bona fide form part of the medical stores of a ship or aircraft. The sections read state no exemption for a traveller's personal supply, so none is established, and the Convention as defined in section 2 names only the 1912 and 1925 and 1931 instruments.

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.