Is Crack Cocaine legal in Tuvalu?

Legal status

Crack cocaine is a controlled drug in Tuvalu on this site's reading, controlled through the named entry for cocaine. The word crack appears nowhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, Cap. 10.10, 2022 Revised Edition, or in the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025 (Act 9 of 2025), and no entry names it. The reasoning is structural. Section 2 (page 7) defines “cocaine” as “methyl-benzoyl laevo-ecgonine” in a stated solution test “of which the formula is C17H21O4N”, which is the formula of the free base of cocaine, and paragraph 1 of Part I of Schedule 2 (page 32) enters “Cocaine.” by name, so that section 13(1) applies Part IV to it: “The provisions of this Part shall apply to the substances for the time being specified in Part I of Schedule 2.” Crack cocaine is cocaine in that free base form. That identification is general chemistry and is not stated in the Act, which uses the phrase “cocaine base” only in Part II paragraph 10 as the measure of strength. Crack is commonly prepared from a cocaine salt, and paragraph 3 covers “Any salt of a substance for the time being specified in paragraph 1 or 2 above”. Crack as commonly sold carries other substances, and paragraph 8 covers “Any preparation, admixture, extract or other substance containing any proportion of a substance for the time being specified in paragraph 1 above”. Part II paragraph 10 excepts only “A preparation of cocaine containing not more than 0.1 per cent of cocaine calculated as cocaine base” that is compounded so that it “has no, or a negligible, risk of abuse”. The text read names no other exception for a cocaine base, and that is a reading of the text, not a printed statement about crack. Act 9 of 2025 does not amend Schedule 2. The model is a schedule printed in the Act, with a power in section 13(2) for the Minister to modify Schedule 2 by order. No order is printed in the 2022 Revised Edition and none appears beneath the Act on the legislation site's index, as read on 7 October 2026.

Consequences if caught

The consequences are those of Part IV for cocaine, because that is the route by which crack is reached. Possession: section 20 (page 14) makes it an offence for a Part IV drug to be “found in the possession of any person or kept in any place other than the appointed store” unless the person “can prove” that it was obtained under the authority of the Act, “in accordance with the prescription of a person whose name appears in the said Medical and Dental Register”, or “from a person having authority to sell it”, or was deposited there without knowledge or consent. The burden of proof is on the person found with the drug. The text prints no quantity threshold, no presumption of supply and no separate offence of possession for supply. Sale, use, manufacture: section 5(1) as replaced by Act 9 of 2025 (page 5) reads “No person shall import, export, manufacture, cultivate, sell, or use any dangerous drug except with a license issued under section 14A.” It does not name possession. Trafficking: the word appears only in section 8(b) and section 12(1)(a) as amended by Act 9 of 2025, which concern Part II substances and prepared opium, and in the headings of Schedule 3 to that Act, and no trafficking offence is printed for a Part IV drug. Import and export: section 14 (page 12) provides “No person shall import or export any substance to which this Part applies, except in accordance with sections 21 to 29”; section 22 requires a valid export authorisation and section 27 a valid import authorisation. Part II paragraph 10, quoted above, excepts a limited cocaine preparation. Section 30 (printed page 16) provides: “The provisions of sections 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 shall not apply to any preparation or other substance for the time being falling within Part II of Schedule 2.” Those sections include the section 14 import and export ban, the store rules and the section 20 possession offence, so a preparation that falls within Part II of Schedule 2 is outside them. Section 15 and new section 5(1) carry no matching exception. Section 35(1) deems articles whose importation is prohibited by the Act to be prohibited goods under the Customs Revenue and Border Protection Act. That Act provides three routes for goods prohibited under its section 78. Section 212(1)(a) (printed page 108) makes it an offence to import such goods, with a fine not exceeding $2,000 under section 212(3) (printed page 109). Section 215 (printed page 110), on knowing possession or custody of prohibited imports, carries for an individual a fine not exceeding $1,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or both, and for a body corporate a fine not exceeding $10,000, or a fine of 3 times the value of the goods, whichever is the lesser. Section 216 (printed page 110), on knowing purchase, sale, exchange or other acquisition or disposal, carries for an individual a fine not exceeding $5,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 5 years or both, and for a body corporate a fine not exceeding $50,000, or 3 times the value of the goods, whichever is the lesser. Item 14 of the list of prohibited imports (printed page 146) reads “Goods the importation of which is prohibited by any other law in force in Tuvalu.” and item 9 of the list of restricted imports (printed page 147) reads “Goods the importation of which is regulated by any other law in force in Tuvalu except in accordance with such law.” The text read does not say whether these Customs Act penalties apply to crack cocaine alongside section 39(2). The text does not say which route a given importation is charged under. Section 35(2) (printed page 19) provides: “If any goods the exportation of which is prohibited or restricted by this Act 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 Customs Officer.” The text does not say how that liability relates to section 39(2) or to Schedule 3. Penalty: section 39(2) (page 21) provides for each offence “for which no penalty is otherwise prescribed”, on conviction by the High Court sitting with assessors, “a fine of $4,000 and to imprisonment for 10 years”, or on summary conviction “a fine not exceeding $1,000 and to imprisonment for 5 years”, and forfeiture of the articles in every case. The fine and the term are joined by “and”. Which penalty provision governs is a gap in the text. Section 5(2) says a person in violation of section 5 “shall be sentenced pursuant to Schedule 3”. Section 8(2), inserted by section 4 of Act 9 of 2025 (printed page 6), reads “Any person who commits an offence under this Act shall be sentenced according to Schedule 3.” Section 5(2) is worded for the conduct named in new section 5(1), which is import, export, manufacture, cultivation, sale and use, and does not name possession. The section 20 possession offence therefore reaches Schedule 3, if at all, only through section 8(2), and Schedule 3 has no row for a Part IV drug. Schedule 3 as printed in Act 9 of 2025 has bands only for Indian hemp, opium poppy or coca plant and leaf, and prepared opium, and no row for cocaine or any other substance in Part I of Schedule 2. The text does not say whether a Part IV offence is sentenced under section 39(2) or has no Schedule 3 band. A second gap is scope: section 5 replaced a section that stood in Part II, which section 4(1) confines to raw opium, coca leaf and Indian hemp, while new section 5(1) speaks of “any dangerous drug”. The amending Act does not say whether Part IV substances were meant. Section 42 (page 22) provides that in proceedings under the Act “the production of a certificate purporting to be signed by a government chemist shall be prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated”. Cultivation: crack is a product, not a plant, and no cultivation row exists for it. The coca plant and leaf are a separate Part II control with their own Schedule 3 bands, which are not a penalty for crack. Administrative: section 16(2) requires any person in possession of a Part IV drug to keep a stock book, and section 39(3) (page 21) provides that “no person, on conviction for any offence of contravening or failing to comply with any rules made under this Act, relating to the keeping of books, or the issuing or dispensing of prescriptions containing drugs to which this Act applies, shall be sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine, or to pay a fine exceeding $100”, if the court is satisfied that the offence was committed through inadvertence and was not preparatory to, or committed in connection with, any other offence against this Act. Capital exposure: nothing in the Act or Act 9 of 2025 provides a penalty of death. The largest figures printed are in section 39(2) for this substance. Tuvalu's general law on capital punishment was not checked.

If prescribed or medical

The text prints no medical use or prescription route for crack cocaine as such. Cocaine itself is a Part IV drug, and Part IV contemplates a medical route without printing it. Section 15(1)(c) lets the Minister make rules “regulating the issue by medical practitioners of prescriptions containing any such dangerous drug and the dispensing of any such prescription”. Section 19 allows withdrawal from the appointed store only to a person on the Medical and Dental Register, a registered pharmacist or a qualified veterinary surgeon. Section 14A, inserted by Act 9 of 2025, lets the Minister license importation, exportation, manufacture, cultivation, sale or use of dangerous drugs “for medical and scientific purposes”, on application in Form G. No rules under section 15 appear in the Act's text or beneath it on the legislation site's index as read on 7 October 2026. The Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act, Cap. 28.32 (2022 Revised Edition), lists “dangerous drugs” as a class of the Tuvalu Medicines Schedule (section 9(2)(g), page 13) and provides in section 42 (page 28) that its requirements are in addition to those under the Dangerous Drugs Act. The Tuvalu Medicines Schedule itself was not located, so whatever classification it gives cocaine is not established by any text read.

Documentation

Searched: the Dangerous Drugs Act, Cap. 10.10, 2022 Revised Edition, 36 pages, and Act 9 of 2025, 9 pages, both read in full, for “crack”, “freebase”, “free base” and “cocaine base”. The words crack, freebase and free base returned no entry in either Act, in the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act or in the Customs Revenue and Border Protection Act, and “cocaine base” occurs once, in Part II paragraph 10, so the control reaches crack through the cocaine entry and paragraphs 3 and 8, not through a label. The printed pages of the Dangerous Drugs Act carry only the words “2022 Revised Edition” and no consolidation date. The legislation site's home page, https://www.tuvalu-legislation.tv/cms/, read on 7 October 2026, states that the Laws of Tuvalu are in force as at 31st December 2022. Section 2 defines “crude cocaine” as “any extract of the coca leaf which can be used directly or indirectly for the manufacture of cocaine”, and the term appears in no other provision of the 2022 text. The Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act (sections 9 and 42) and the Customs Act (Schedule 2, sections 78, 212, 215 and 216) were read for the provisions cited. Schedule 2 of the Customs Act, as printed, has no entry naming cocaine or crack, and its prohibited item 14 (printed page 146) covers “Goods the importation of which is prohibited by any other law in force in Tuvalu.” and its restricted item 9 (printed page 147) covers “Goods the importation of which is regulated by any other law in force in Tuvalu except in accordance with such law.” Tuvalu Medicines Schedule: searched on three routes, the legislation site's subsidiary legislation, notices and gazette indexes, Ministry of Health and government hostnames with web searches, and WHO and Pacific health sources, and no copy was located. Commencement of Act 9 of 2025: it commenced on the date of its publication under its section 1(2), which reads “This Act shall come into force on the date of publication”. The publication date is not printed in the Act and no commencement date is stated here. The Act contains no provision for a personal or traveller allowance for a Part IV drug. This entry rests on the Dangerous Drugs Act and its 2025 amendment. Tuvalu's Penal Code was not read.

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