Is Cannabis / THC legal in Kiribati?

Also known as: weed, marijuana

Legal status

Controlled. Cannabis is within the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 23, Laws of the Gilbert Islands, Revised Edition 1977, in three forms addressed apart. The plant: section 2, printed page 5, defines "Indian hemp" as "either of the plants Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica or any portion thereof", and Part II section 4(1), printed page 6, applies Part II to "Indian hemp and resins obtained from Indian hemp and preparations of which such resins form the base". Extracts and tinctures: Schedule 2, Part I, paragraph 7, printed page 26, prints "Any extract or tincture of cannabis.", and section 13(1) applies Part IV to the substances specified in Part I. Other preparations that are neither resin based nor an extract or tincture are not named, and are not stated here to be controlled. Version read: Revised Edition 1977, as amended by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Acts 1995 and 2001, which insert section 8A and add datura metel to Part II and were not read to change the Indian hemp provisions. Model B: section 13(2) lets the Minister by order modify Schedule 2. The Dangerous Drugs Ordinance was read as in force in the 1977 Revised Edition as amended to the Acts of 1995 and 2001, and this text does not rule out a later amendment or a later order under section 13(2).

Consequences if caught

Cultivation: section 7, printed page 6, "No person shall cultivate in the Gilbert Islands the opium poppy or Indian hemp or coca leaf plant", and section 8(a) makes it an offence under the Ordinance to knowingly cultivate Indian hemp "whether for private use or otherwise". Possession and sale: section 8(b) makes guilty of an offence under the Ordinance every person "found in possession of or selling, or who shall have given or sold, to any person any substance to which this Part applies", and the text of section 8(b) read states no prescription or authority defence. Import and export: section 4(2) provides that no person shall import or export any of the substances to which Part II applies, and section 5 prohibits import or export of any seed of Indian hemp or any portion of the plant, with forfeiture under section 6. For an extract or tincture, which is a Part IV drug, section 20, printed page 10, applies: the person in whose possession it is found, or the occupier of the place, is guilty of an offence against the Ordinance "unless he can prove that such drug was obtained under the authority of this Ordinance, 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". Regulation 6(1) of the Dangerous Drugs Regulations L.N. 19/80: "A person shall not be in possession of a drug or preparation unless he is duly so authorised." Penalty, section 39(2), printed page 17: every person guilty of an offence under the Ordinance shall, in respect of each offence for which no penalty is otherwise prescribed, be liable "on conviction by the High Court, to a fine of $2000 and to imprisonment for 10 years", or "on summary conviction by a magistrates' court, to a fine not exceeding $1000 and to imprisonment for 5 years", and in every case forfeit "all articles in respect of which the offence was committed". The word between the fine and the imprisonment is "and", so a fine and imprisonment are both imposed and are not alternatives. Section 39(4): a person who attempts, solicits or incites another to commit an offence is liable to the same punishment and forfeiture. Section 39(3): for breach of rules on keeping books or on issuing or dispensing prescriptions, the court shall not impose imprisonment without the option of a fine or a fine exceeding $100, if the court is satisfied that the offence was committed through inadvertence and was not preparatory to, or committed in the course of, or in connection with, the commission of, or intended commission of, any other offence against this Ordinance. The Ordinance text read has no death penalty provision for a drug offence. Section 39(3), printed page 17, provides that no person shall be proceeded against under subsection (1)(a) 'unless the proceedings are instituted by, or with the consent of, the Attorney-General'. No separate offence called trafficking or use was found in the text read. Manufacture and sale of an extract or tincture, which is a Part IV drug: Regulation 3 reads 'A person shall not manufacture or carry on any process in the manufacture of a drug' unless he is duly authorised, on authorised premises and within the terms of his authority; Regulation 4 limits buying wholesale to registered medical practitioners, registered dentists, approved veterinary surgeons and registered pharmacists; Regulation 5(1) forbids a person to 'supply or procure or offer to supply or procure or prescribe' a drug or preparation, or 'advertise for sale', unless authorised; Regulation 16 reads 'No person shall give, sell, barter or distribute any drug or preparation save as is permitted by these Regulations'; and Regulation 9(1)(a)(i) authorises registered pharmacists actually in business to manufacture at the shop 'any extract or tincture of Indian hemp'. The Regulations are headed as made under section 15(1). Section 39(1)(a), printed page 16, makes guilty of an offence under the Ordinance any person who 'acts in contravention of or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this Ordinance or any rules made under this Ordinance; or'. Whether the Regulations are such rules is not stated. Regulation 17 reads: 'These Regulations shall not apply to the Government Medical Services.' Import and export of an extract or tincture: section 14, printed page 8, provides that no person shall import or export any substance to which Part IV applies except in accordance with sections 21 to 29, and section 3, printed page 6, requires dangerous drugs to go through ports approved by the Minister. For the plant and resin, section 4(2) prohibits import and export outright. Customs route, read from the Ordinance printed pages 13, 14 and 15 as images. Section 35(1), printed pages 14 and 15, deems articles whose importation is prohibited or restricted by the Ordinance to be goods whose importation is prohibited 'under the Customs Ordinance' (margin note 'Cap. 22'). Section 35(2), printed page 15, reads: 'If any goods the exportation of which is prohibited or restricted by this Ordinance are exported in contravention thereof, or brought to a wharf or other place to be shipped in any conveyance, the exporter or his agent shall be liable for each offence to forfeit either treble the value of the goods or $200, at the option of the Chief Customs Officer.' The word in section 35(2) is 'or'. It is a forfeiture liability of the exporter at the option of the Chief Customs Officer and is not stated as a term of imprisonment. Pages 13 to 15 print no other penalty band for import or export, and section 39(2) applies to 'each offence for which no penalty is otherwise prescribed', so how section 35(2) and section 39(2) combine for an export is not stated. The Customs Act 2019, read from page images (PDF pages 31, 32, 64, 65 and 69), reads: section 64(2) 'The importation of goods listed in the table in Schedule 3 is absolutely prohibited' (note: 'It is an offence to knowingly import prohibited imports (Schedule 8, item 5)'), Schedule 3 item 20 'Goods the importation of which is prohibited by any law of Kiribati', section 66(2) 'The exportation of goods listed in the table in Schedule 5 is absolutely prohibited', Schedule 5 item 1 'Goods of any kind, the exportation of which is prohibited under a law of Kiribati', and Schedule 8 item 5 'Knowingly importing a prohibited import' with maximum penalty 'A fine of $10,000, imprisonment for three years and forfeiture of the goods' and item 7 'Knowingly exporting a prohibited export' with maximum penalty 'A fine of $5000, imprisonment for two years and forfeiture of the goods'. The link from the Customs Ordinance named in section 35 to the Customs Act 2019 is not established: section 156(1) of the 2019 Act (PDF page 59, read as an image) repeals 'The Customs Act 2005', and the Customs Ordinance, Cap. 22, is not named in the pages read. Whether a substance controlled by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance is a good prohibited 'by any law of Kiribati' for Schedule 3 item 20 and Schedule 5 item 1 is likewise not stated. If it is, the Schedule 8 item 5 and item 7 bands quoted above would follow; the pages read do not settle it.

If prescribed or medical

For an extract or tincture, section 20 makes a doctor's prescription one of the defences to possession, and regulation 6(2)(a) of the Regulations L.N. 19/80 deems a person lawfully supplied on a prescription to be authorised to be in possession. No prescription route was read for the plant or resin under Part II. The Poisons List in the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance Cap. 70, 1977 Edition, prints on page 28 "Cannabis (the dried flowering or fruiting tops of Cannabis sativa Linn.) the resin of cannabis; extracts of cannabis; tinctures of cannabis; cannabin tannate.", but that is a sale law of the 1977 Edition whose force today is not established. The Medical Services Act 1996 section 42 lists no drug. Regulation 11(2) reads: 'The prescribed form for prescriptions for a drug or preparation shall be in the form set out in section 37 of the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance.' Cap. 70 section 37 (printed pages 13 and 14, read as images) provides that a medical practitioner shall not issue a prescription unless it is 'signed by him with his usual signature' or written on paper printed with his surname and the initials of his Christian names, and 'bears the date on which the prescription was issued'; a veterinary surgeon's prescription must bear the words 'for veterinary purposes only' and a dentist's the words 'for dental purposes only'; and section 37(4) provides that a prescription which does not comply 'shall not be accepted by any pharmacist as authority for the sale or supply of any medicine or drug'. Section 38(2) (page 14) requires every prescription containing any of the drugs to which an Ordinance as to the sale of dangerous drugs relates to be 'retained in the custody of the pharmacist dispensing the same for a period of 2 years and filed in the pharmacy', and section 39(c) (page 14) forbids a pharmacist to '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 section 38 (2) relates'. Those are rules of a 1977 Edition pharmacy law whose force today is not established. The Medical Services Act 1996 section 42(2), PDF page 14 read as an image, provides that a medical practitioner or dentist who contravenes or does not comply with section 42(1) 'commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of $40'. Section 42 is a separate form rule in a later Act.

Documentation

Read: the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance Cap. 23, Revised Edition 1977, a scan read from the page images of printed pages 5, 6, 8, 10, 17 and 25 to 27, with the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Acts 1995 and 2001, the Regulations L.N. 19/80 and the Poisons List in Cap. 70. Model B, delegated amendment power: section 13(2) lets the Minister by order modify Schedule 2 on a decision of the Commission or of the Organisation under the Single Convention of 30th March 1961. Not established: whether any order under section 13(2) was made after 1977, whether the 1977 text is the text in force today, and the year of the 2001 Act, because the year digit is cut off in the scan. Whether a cannabidiol or other isolated cannabinoid is an extract of cannabis is not stated by the text. Page images also read: Dangerous Drugs Ordinance printed pages 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 26 and 27; Medical Services Act 1996 PDF page 14; Customs Act 2019 PDF pages 31, 32, 59, 64, 65 and 69; Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance Cap. 70 printed pages 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22; Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 1995 page 1. The Dangerous Drugs Regulations L.N. 19/80 were read from the text layer of the PDF, and no page image of them was read. Also not established: whether the Dangerous Drugs Regulations, headed as made under section 15(1), are 'rules made under this Ordinance' within section 39(1)(a); whether the Customs Ordinance named in section 35 of the Ordinance is the Customs Act 2019, whose section 156(1) repeals the Customs Act 2005 and does not name Cap. 22; and how section 35, Schedule 8 of the Customs Act 2019 and section 39(2) combine for import and export.

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