Is Methadone legal in Tuvalu?

Also known as: dolophine

Legal status

Controlled in Tuvalu as a named dangerous drug under Part IV of the Dangerous Drugs Act (Cap. 10.10, 2022 Revised Edition). Paragraph 1 of Part I of Schedule 2 lists “Methadone.” (page 33), and section 13(1) says “The provisions of this Part shall apply to the substances for the time being specified in Part I of Schedule 2”. Paragraph 3 adds “Any salt of a substance for the time being specified in paragraph 1 or 2 above” and paragraph 8 adds “Any preparation, admixture, extract or other substance containing any proportion of a substance for the time being specified in paragraph 1 above” (page 34). Methadone is not among the substances listed in paragraph 9(2) of Part II of Schedule 2, and paragraphs 10 to 14 of Part II concern cocaine, opium and morphine, diphenoxylate, ipecacuanha and opium powder, and mixtures of those preparations, so no Part II exception names it. 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. Isomethadone and Normethadone are separate entries in paragraph 1. Stated as at the 2022 Revised Edition as amended by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025.

Consequences if caught

Possession. Section 20 says that when a dangerous drug to which Part IV applies “is found in the possession of any person or kept in any place other than the appointed store”, that person or the occupier of the place, “unless he can prove that such drug was obtained under the authority of this Act, or 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 his knowledge or consent”, and also the owner or any person guilty of keeping it, “shall be guilty of an offence against this Act”. The burden of proof sits on the person found in possession. Section 16(2) says a person in possession of such a drug “shall keep a stock book in such form as shall be prescribed by rule made under this Part”. No quantity threshold, minimum sentence or presumption of supply is printed for Part IV drugs. Sale, supply and manufacture. Section 15(1) lets the Minister make rules “for controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, distribution and custody” of these drugs, including “prohibiting the manufacture, sale or distribution of any such dangerous drugs, except by persons licensed or otherwise authorised under the rules”, and section 15(2) says the rules “shall provide for authorising” a pharmaceutical chemist and druggist to manufacture preparations and to retail, dispense or compound. New section 5(1), replaced by section 3 of the 2025 Act, says “No person shall import, export, manufacture, cultivate, sell, or use any dangerous drug except with a license issued under section 14A”, which also reaches use. The word trafficking appears only in section 8(b) for Part II substances and in section 12(1)(a) for prepared opium, as amended, and in the Schedule 3 rows for Indian hemp, opium poppy or coca plant and prepared opium, and not in Part IV. Cultivation is not applicable to methadone and the text says nothing of it. Import and export. Section 3 says “No person shall import, export, tranship or divert dangerous drugs except through ports approved by the Minister”. Section 14 says no person shall import or export a Part IV substance “except in accordance with sections 21 to 29”. Section 27 says “No dangerous drug shall be imported unless the person to whom the drug is consigned is in possession of a valid and subsisting import authorisation granted in pursuance of this Act”, section 25 lets the Senior Medical Officer grant it “subject to such conditions as he shall deem fit”, section 28 requires an export authorisation or diversion certificate to accompany a drug from a country that is a party to the Convention, and section 22 says no such drug shall be exported “unless the exporter is in possession of a valid and subsisting export authorisation”. A search of both Acts for traveller, passenger, personal use, baggage and luggage returned nothing, so the text read contains no exemption for a person carrying methadone for personal use. The only exemption for carriage that the text read prints in terms is section 31(5), which concerns drugs in transit by post or by air without the aircraft landing, and quantities that “bona fide reasonably form part of the medical stores of any ship or aircraft”. Penalty. Schedule 3 to the 2025 Act has rows only for Indian hemp, opium poppy or coca plant and prepared opium, and no row for methadone or any other Part IV drug. New section 5(2) says a person in violation of section 5 “is guilty of an offence under this Act and 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. Section 8(2) speaks of an offence under “this Act”, not of an offence under a Part. Section 39(2) says every person guilty of an offence under the Act shall, in respect of each offence “for which no penalty is otherwise prescribed”, be liable on conviction by the High Court sitting with assessors to a fine of $4,000 and to imprisonment for 10 years, or on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 and to imprisonment for 5 years, and shall forfeit the articles. Both limbs join the fine and the imprisonment with and. The text does not say which of these routes governs a Part IV offence, so no single band is stated for methadone. Section 39(3) caps a fine at $100 and bars imprisonment without the option of a fine for a breach of rules on keeping books or on issuing or dispensing prescriptions that the court is satisfied was committed through inadvertence. Attempt, soliciting and inciting carry the same punishment (section 39(4)). Section 35(1) deems articles whose importation the Act prohibits to be prohibited goods under the Customs Revenue and Border Protection Act. 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. For goods prohibited under section 78 of that Act, section 212(1)(a) makes importing them an offence, with a fine not exceeding $2,000 under section 212(3) (pages 108 and 109). Section 215 makes knowing possession or custody of prohibited imports an offence, with, 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 (page 110). Section 216 makes knowing purchase, sale, exchange or other acquisition or disposal an offence, with, 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 (page 110). 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 methadone alongside section 39(2). Capital exposure. The text of the Dangerous Drugs Act and of the 2025 Act contains no death penalty. The highest maximum printed anywhere in the 2025 Schedule 3 is life imprisonment, for selling or trafficking more than 10 grams of prepared opium, which does not reach methadone as printed. Tuvalu’s general law on capital punishment was not checked.

If prescribed or medical

The text refers to prescriptions in section 20 and section 15(1)(c) but prints no prescribing rules. Section 20 excuses possession of a Part IV drug where the person proves it was obtained “in accordance with the prescription of a person whose name appears in the said Medical and Dental Register”. 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 says no officer shall authorise withdrawal of such a drug from the store “except to a person whose name appears in the Medical and Dental Register kept in pursuance of the Health Professionals Act or who is a registered pharmacist or qualified veterinary surgeon”. New section 14A, inserted by section 6 of the 2025 Act, says “The Minister may issue licenses for the importation, exportation, manufacture, cultivation, sale, or use of dangerous drugs for medical and scientific purposes”, on conditions the Minister prescribes. Section 42 of the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act says that if a therapeutic product is also a dangerous drug, “the prohibitions, conditions, and requirements in this Act are in addition to those contained in or imposed under the Dangerous drugs Act” (page 28). The rules under section 15 were not found. The Tuvalu Medicines Schedule that section 9 of that Act requires was searched for on three routes and not found, so the prescription classification of methadone under it is not established.

Documentation

Read in full: the Dangerous Drugs Act, Cap. 10.10, 2022 Revised Edition (36 pages, printed commencement 20th October 1948), and the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025, Act 9 of 2025 (9 pages), which says in section 1(2) “This Act shall come into force on the date of publication”. It commenced on the date of its publication under its section 1(2); the text gives no date and none is stated. The 2025 Act is not consolidated into the 2022 Revised Edition. 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. This entry rests on the Dangerous Drugs Act and its 2025 amendment. Tuvalu’s Penal Code was not read. Also read: sections 78, 212, 215 and 216, item 14 of the list of prohibited imports and item 9 of the list of restricted imports in Schedule 2 of the Customs Revenue and Border Protection Act 2014, Cap. 26.04, 2022 Revised Edition (the PDF prints “Customers”), and sections 9 and 42 of the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act, Cap. 28.32, 2022 Revised Edition. Searched in the text of the Dangerous Drugs Act: methadon returns Isomethadone, Methadone and Normethadone in Schedule 2 and no other hit. The word rules occurs only in sections 15, 16(2), 38(2) and 39 as a power or a reference, and no rules are printed. The tuvalu-legislation.tv all-legislation index page, read on 7 October 2026 (sha256 f1a30168fc3e2cb5944e6849a1de4afc5ceffddaa6b71bed2cf522c86d0c3070), lists beneath the Dangerous Drugs Act only the 2025 amendment and lists no rules, so whether any rules were made is not established. The Tuvalu Medicines Schedule was searched for on 7 October 2026 on three routes: the tuvalu-legislation.tv legislation, subsidiary legislation, notices and gazette pages; the government and Ministry of Health websites, where the hostnames tried returned no connection; and WHO and Pacific health sources. It was not found. The text does not say whether the import authorisation route in sections 25 and 27 or the licence route in section 14A is available to a person carrying methadone for personal use. No court decision, penalty practice or issued authorisation was 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.