Is Methadone legal in Solomon Islands?

Also known as: dolophine

Legal status

Controlled. Methadone is a named drug in the proclamation of 21 September 1987 (LN 101 of 1987) applying Part III of the Dangerous Drugs Act (Cap. 98, reprint as in force at 1 October 2009) under section 13(2). Paragraph 1 of the schedule, printed page 2822 of the 1996 Revised Edition, lists 'Methadone', between 'Metazocine' and 'Methadyl acetate' (printed 'Methadyl acelate'). Related names are separate entries and are not the answer for methadone itself: 'Isomethadone', 'Normethadone', 'Acetylmethadol', 'Alphacetylmethadol', 'Betacetylmethadol', 'Alphamethadol', 'Betamethadol', 'Noracymethadol', and the unlabelled entry '4-Cyano-2-dimethylamino-4,4-diphenylbutane' printed at the foot of the list. The instruments do not say what that last entry is, and no claim is made about it here. Paragraph 2 extends Part III to any stereoisomeric form of a paragraph 1 substance, paragraph 3 to esters and ethers, paragraph 4 to salts and paragraph 5 to preparations. Paragraph 5 of the 1987 schedule (and paragraph 9 for the second list) reaches 'any preparations or other product containing a substance' of the earlier paragraphs but excludes 'a preparation specified in Schedule 1'; no Schedule 1 appears in the pages read and no order under section 13(3) was read, so which preparations are 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. The named entry governs and no generic clause is needed. The Poisons List in Schedule B of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act does not name methadone.

Consequences if caught

Methadone as a Part III drug through the proclamation: Personal possession: section 20 makes it an offence against the Act when 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 and trafficking: the Act's text states no separate offence of possession for supply or of trafficking for Part III drugs. Sale and distribution: these are left to rules the Minister may make under section 15(1)(b), and the only rules located are the 2025 methylamphetamine rules, so a sale offence for this substance is not verified beyond the general offence in section 39(1)(a) of contravening the Act or a rule under it. Import and export are two separate offences: sections 14, 23, 25, 28 and 30 prohibit them except in accordance with sections 22 to 30, section 3 limits entry and exit to a port approved by notice, and 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 the Act's text states no manufacture offence itself. Cultivation: methadone is synthetic and no cultivation offence applies to it. 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 or authority. 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 such fine and imprisonment'). 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 by medical practitioners of prescriptions containing a Part III drug and the dispensing of them, and section 15(2) requires the rules to authorise a pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist to retail, dispense or compound such drugs 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 treats possession in accordance with the prescription of a registered medical practitioner as a matter the accused may prove. Section 39(3) bars imprisonment without the option of a fine, and caps the fine at 100 penalty units, for an inadvertent breach of the rules on keeping books or on prescriptions. Rules under section 15 other than the 2025 methylamphetamine rules were not located, so the detailed prescription rules for methadone 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'. The Poisons Rules (1996 Revised Edition) list 'Methadone' on printed page 3033 in the Fourth Schedule, and rule 11(1) forbids a sale of a Fourth Schedule poison except on a prescription of a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist or qualified veterinary surgeon. Under rule 11(3) a prescription must be in writing, signed with the usual signature and dated, give the prescriber's address, give the name and address of the person treated, and indicate the total amount to be supplied and the dose to be taken; under rule 11(4) it may not be dispensed more than once unless the prescriber states that it may, and the dispenser must note the seller's name, address and date on it and keep it on the premises for two years. That is a pharmacy sale control and is separate from the drug control above. No instrument read describes a methadone maintenance programme. 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 methadone as a Part III drug 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 quantity exemption from the transit rules is 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, 1925 and 1931 instruments. Under the Pharmacy and Poisons Act, section 52(1) forbids importing 'any poison' except under a licence issued by the Board, with a proviso for qualified medical practitioners, registered pharmacists, qualified veterinary surgeons or qualified dentists importing for bona fide treatment, and section 2 of the Act reads 'poison includes the several substances mentioned in the poisons list in Schedule B', and nothing mentions a traveller. A reported Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2025 was not read.

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.