Is Mephedrone (4-MMC) legal in Ghana?

Legal status

Controlled under the Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 1019), as a cathinone derivative. Seventh Schedule Part 1, headed «Psychotropic Substances of natural origin», names «Catha edulis Forsk. its preparations, derivatives, alkaloids and salts, including:» and its item 2 is «Cathinones and their derivatives». Part 2 also names «Calhinone» at item 18, as printed, and «2-Metliylamino-I-phenyl-I-propanone», which is methcathinone, at item 20, as printed. The Act's definition of narcotic drug reaches a listed substance «whether in a natural or synthetic form». Mephedrone is 4-methylmethcathinone, a ring-methylated derivative of methcathinone and so of cathinone, a chemical fact brought from outside the text; the Act does not name it. No decision applying item 2 to a synthetic cathinone was found. Read in the official parliamentary text on 3 October 2026. This is stated as the Schedules stand after the Narcotics Control Commission (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1100), which the judy.legal consolidation records as the Act's only amendment and whose Bill substitutes section 43 alone; the enacted text of Act 1100 was not itself read. The power to move the lists is in section 112: its subsection (1) gave a power to revise the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Schedules within twelve months of commencement, and its subsection (2)(b) gives a continuing power to make Regulations specifying «the classification of drugs and the appropriate penalties». The only Regulations found under the Act, L.I. 2475 of 2023 on cannabis cultivation, revise no Schedule on their table of contents, and this does not rule out a later instrument that was not found.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Act 1019 prints no sentence of death. Its Second Schedule, read from the page images, sets these bands: possession for use under section 37(2)(a), a fine of not less than two hundred and not more than five hundred penalty units, with not more than fifteen months' imprisonment in default; possession for trafficking under section 37(2)(b), importation or exportation under section 36 and prohibited business under section 38, each a fine of not less than ten thousand and not more than twenty five thousand penalty units and imprisonment of not less than ten and not more than twenty five years, with three years in default; and purchase under section 45, which by section 45(2) includes purchase for personal use, a fine of not less than two thousand and not more than ten thousand penalty units or imprisonment of not less than four and not more than ten years. Possession for trafficking means a quantity «in excess of a quantity which can reasonably be used by an individual in a day». Section 50 requires life imprisonment where a person found guilty of a narcotic offence has been convicted «on more than one previous occasion» of an importation, exportation, processing, sale, manufacture, distribution, cultivation or supply offence.

If prescribed or medical

No prescription or medical route for mephedrone was found. The Green List 2024 carries mephedrone in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention, which brings it within the FDA guideline's definition of a psychotropic substance for medical supply.

Documentation

Section 36(1) requires a licence from the Minister responsible for Health to import a narcotic drug. No traveller allowance was found in Act 1019.

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