Is Codeine legal in Kiribati?

Legal status

Controlled. Codeine is named in Schedule 2 Part I paragraph 1 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 23 (printed page 25), which prints the entry 'Codeine.', so Part IV applies to it under section 13(1). Paragraph 3 (page 26) adds 'Any salt of a substance for the time being specified in paragraph 1 or 2', and paragraph 8 reaches 'Any preparation, admixture, extract or other substance containing any proportion of' a paragraph 1 substance. Related named entries on the same list include Acetyldihydrocodeine, Dihydrocodeine (page 25) and Norcodeine (page 26), which are separate substances. This is the text as in force in the 1977 Revised Edition, as amended by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Acts 1995 and 2001. It does not rule out a later amendment or a later order under section 13(2), by which the Minister may modify Schedule 2 (page 8), and no such order was read.

Consequences if caught

Personal possession: section 20 (printed page 10) makes it an offence against the Ordinance to be found in possession of a dangerous drug to which Part IV applies, or to keep it in any place other than the appointed store, '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 (commenced 21 February 1980) adds: 'A person shall not be in possession of a drug or preparation unless he is duly so authorised.' Penalty, section 39(2) (page 17), for each offence for which no penalty is otherwise prescribed: on conviction by the High Court, 'a fine of $2000 and to imprisonment for 10 years'; on summary conviction by a magistrates' court, 'a fine not exceeding $1000 and to imprisonment for 5 years'. The text joins the fine and the imprisonment with 'and', so the two are cumulative and not alternative. On conviction every article in respect of which the offence was committed is forfeited ('shall in every case... forfeit to Her Majesty'), and the court may order the forfeited articles destroyed. Attempting, soliciting or inciting carries the same punishment and forfeiture (section 39(4)). Proceedings under section 39(1)(a) need the Attorney-General's institution or consent (section 39(3)). Possession for supply, sale and trafficking: the text read prints no separate offence or penalty band for possession for supply or for trafficking. Regulation 5 forbids supplying, procuring, offering to supply, prescribing or advertising for sale a drug or preparation without authority, and Regulation 16 states 'No person shall give, sell, barter or distribute any drug or preparation save as is permitted by these Regulations'. 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: section 14 (page 8) provides 'No person shall import or export any substance to which this Part applies, except in accordance with sections 21 to 29'; section 27 (page 12) forbids importing unless the consignee holds a valid import authorisation, section 29 reaches steps preparatory to importing, section 22 (page 11) forbids exporting without an export authorisation and section 24 reaches steps preparatory to exporting; section 3 (page 6) allows import and export only through ports approved by the Minister. 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. Manufacture: Regulation 3 forbids manufacturing or carrying on any process in the manufacture of a drug unless duly authorised, on authorised premises and within the terms of the authority. Whether Regulation 3 is a rule within section 39(1)(a) is the question stated above. Cultivation: the Ordinance's cultivation provisions concern the opium poppy, Indian hemp and coca leaf plant and, since 2001, datura metel, not this compound, and the text read states no cultivation offence for it. Use: the text read states no separate offence of use or consumption as such. Administrative offences: Regulations 12 to 15 govern prescriptions, labelling, the register of drugs supplied and the preservation of records; under section 39(3) (page 17) a person convicted of contravening rules on keeping books or issuing or dispensing prescriptions through inadvertence, not connected with another offence, is not to be sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine or to a fine exceeding $100. Separately, section 8A (inserted by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 1995, Act No. 8 of 1995) makes it an offence to have in possession property reasonably suspected of being the proceeds of an offence under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance without giving the court a satisfactory account, punishable by imprisonment for 2 years. Death penalty: the drug provisions read provide none. Part II preparations: the low strength compounded preparations of codeine described in Schedule 2 Part II paragraph 9 (pages 26 and 27) are excepted as regards importation and exportation, and section 30 (page 12) disapplies sections 14, 16 to 29, including section 20, to preparations falling within Part II. Section 30 disapplies section 20 for a preparation within Part II of Schedule 2. Section 30 does not name section 13, section 15 or the Regulations. Whether regulation 6(1) of L.N. 19/80 reaches a Part II preparation is not stated.

If prescribed or medical

Section 20 (page 10) lists a registered medical practitioner's prescription as one of the matters a possessor may prove to answer the possession offence. Under the Dangerous Drugs Regulations L.N. 19/80, a person to whom a drug or preparation is lawfully supplied on a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, a registered dentist or an approved veterinary surgeon is deemed authorised to be in possession of it (Regulation 6(2)(a)), subject to a proviso that a second prescriber's supply does not count where the patient did not disclose treatment already being received from another practitioner; Regulation 8(1) authorises registered medical practitioners, dentists, approved veterinary surgeons, medical officers and owners and commanders of aircraft to possess and supply drugs so far as necessary for their professions; Regulation 11 defines a prescription as one in the prescribed form given for medical, dental or animal treatment, and Regulation 12 sets the duties of a person supplying on a prescription. The Medical Services Act 1996 (No. 14 of 1996) section 42(1) requires each written prescription to be dated and to bear the address and usual signature of the practitioner; that Act lists no drug and no schedule. The Poisons List (Cap. 70 Schedule 3 Part I, printed page 27) prints 'Codeine.' among the alkaloids, and page 28 prints 'Ethylmorphine.', a separate entry. The Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, Cap. 70, is the 1977 Edition and is a sale law (section 53(2): 'No person shall sell or deal in any of the several articles included in Schedule 3, hereinafter referred to as the Poisons List, except in the manner prescribed in this Ordinance'); its force today is not established, and the Secretary may add to the Poisons List by order under section 53(3). A low strength Part II preparation of codeine is the subject of section 30; see the note on Part II in the documentation field. 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, Laws of the Gilbert Islands, Revised Edition 1977 (running head '1977 Ed.'), a scan with no text layer, from the page images for printed pages 3 to 6, 8, 10 to 12, 16, 17 and 25 to 27; the Dangerous Drugs Regulations L.N. 19/80; the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 1995 (No. 8 of 1995); the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2001 (No. 14 of 2001); the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, Cap. 70, 1977 Edition, Schedule 3 Poisons List (printed pages 27 to 30) and sections 53 to 57, from page images; and the Medical Services Act 1996. Entry relied on: Schedule 2 Part I paragraph 1, page 25, 'Codeine.', read from the page image; the Part II exception for low strength compounded preparations is on pages 26 and 27, also read from the page images. Model: delegated amendment power, exercise unknown. Section 13(1) (page 8) applies Part IV 'to the substances for the time being specified in Part I of Schedule 2', and section 13(2) lets the Minister, where a decision of the Commission or the Organisation to alter the Schedules to the Single Convention 'requires the addition of a substance to, or the removal of a substance from, Part I or Part II of Schedule 2', 'by order make the requisite modifications in the said Schedule'. Nothing adopts the United Nations schedules automatically, and whether any order under section 13(2) was made after 1977 is in nothing read. The Ordinance prints no closing line stating that no subsidiary legislation exists. Not established: any order under section 13(2) after 1977; any amendment after 2001 (none was found, which is not proof there is none); the year of assent and commencement of the 2001 Act, which are handwritten on the scan with the final year digit cut off (the day and month, 14 January and 1 January, are legible); and the force today of the 1977 Edition of Cap. 70. Part II exception, and a drafting point left open by the text: the heading of Part II (page 26) describes preparations 'whose importation and exportation is excepted from control', and paragraph 9 (pages 26 and 27) names codeine and its salts among the substances to which it applies, for a preparation of not more than one such substance, compounded with other ingredients so that it has no or a negligible risk of abuse and the substance cannot be recovered by readily applicable means, containing not more than 100 milligrammes per dosage unit and a concentration of not more than 2.5 per cent in undivided preparations. By its heading and by the Part I heading ('except, in the case of any specified in Part II below, as regards importation and exportation') the exception concerns importation and exportation. Section 30 (page 12), however, separately provides that sections 14, 16 to 29 'shall not apply to any preparation or other substance for the time being falling within Part II of Schedule 2', and section 20 is within that range. Section 30 disapplies section 20 for a preparation within Part II of Schedule 2. Section 30 does not name section 13, section 15 or the Regulations. Whether regulation 6(1) of L.N. 19/80 reaches a Part II preparation is not stated. 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.