Is Morphine legal in Tuvalu?

Legal status

Controlled in Tuvalu as a named dangerous drug under Part IV of the Dangerous Drugs Act, Cap. 10.10 (2022 Revised Edition), read with the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025 (Act 9 of 2025). Morphine is reached by name, not by a group or analogue clause. Section 13(1) (printed page 12) provides: “The provisions of this Part shall apply to the substances for the time being specified in Part I of Schedule 2.” Paragraph 1 of Part I of Schedule 2 (printed page 33) lists “Morphine.”, together with morphine methobromide and other pentavalent nitrogen morphine derivatives, and the heading of Part IV itself names morphine alongside medicinal opium and cocaine. Paragraph 3 reaches any salt, and paragraph 8 reaches “Any preparation, admixture, extract or other substance containing any proportion of a substance” in paragraph 1 (printed page 34). One exception applies to morphine. Paragraph 11 of Part II of Schedule 2 (printed pages 34 and 35) reads “A preparation of medicinal opium or of morphine containing (in either case) not more than 0.2 per cent of morphine calculated as anhydrous morphine base, being a preparation compounded with 1 or more other ingredients in such a way that the preparation has no, or a negligible, risk of abuse and that the opium or, as the case may be, the morphine, cannot be recovered by readily applicable means or in a yield which would constitute a risk to health.” 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. Part II is headed as concerning preparations and other substances falling within Part I whose importation and exportation is excepted from control. The text read prints no exception from section 5(1) and section 15 for such a preparation. Morphine as the alkaloid is also a constituent of raw opium, which section 2 defines as the coagulated juice of the capsules “whatever its morphine content” and which Part II of the Act controls separately. Section 2 defines “dangerous drug” as “any of the substances which may be from time to time subject to the provisions of this Act”, and section 13(2) lets the Minister modify Schedule 2 by order. No such order is in the text read. The schedule is printed in the Act and carries that delegated amendment power, so the entry is stated as at the 2022 Revised Edition and Act 9 of 2025.

Consequences if caught

Conduct, one at a time, from the text. Possession: section 20 (printed page 14) makes it an offence to be found in possession of a Part IV drug, or to keep it in a place other than the appointed store, unless the person “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”. The Act as read carries no quantity threshold, no presumption of supply and no separate offence of possession for supply for Part IV drugs. Sale, manufacture and use: section 5(1), as replaced by section 3 of Act 9 of 2025 (printed page 5), reads “No person shall import, export, manufacture, cultivate, sell, or use any dangerous drug except with a license issued under section 14A.” Import and export: section 14 (printed page 12) reads “No person shall import or export any substance to which this Part applies, except in accordance with sections 21 to 29.” Section 27 bars importation without a valid import authorisation, section 22 bars export without an export authorisation, and section 3 limits import, export and transhipment to ports approved by the Minister. Trafficking: that word appears in sections 8(b) and 12(1)(a) as amended by Act 9 of 2025, which govern Part II substances and prepared opium, and in the headings of Schedule 3 to Act 9 of 2025, and no Part IV offence is worded as trafficking. Penalty: section 5(2) provides that a person in violation “is guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be sentenced pursuant to Schedule 3.” Schedule 3 to Act 9 of 2025 (printed pages 8 and 9) prints bands only for Indian hemp, the opium poppy and coca plant, and prepared opium, and has no row for morphine. 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 39(2) (printed page 21) applies to “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”, with forfeiture of the articles. Fine and imprisonment are joined by “and”. Section 39(4) gives an attempt, solicitation or incitement the same punishment. The text does not say in terms whether section 5(2) with Schedule 3, or section 39(2), governs a Part IV substance such as morphine. Schedule 3 prints no band for it and section 39(2) applies where no penalty is otherwise prescribed, but the Act does not connect the two. Customs: section 35(1) (printed page 19) deems articles whose importation the Act prohibits to be goods prohibited under the Customs Revenue and Border Protection Act, Cap. 26.04. 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. Item 14 of the list of prohibited imports in Schedule 2 to that Act (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.” For goods prohibited under its section 78, that Act provides three routes. Section 212(1)(a) and (3) (printed pages 108 and 109) sets a fine not exceeding $2,000 for importing them. Section 215 (printed page 110) covers knowing possession or custody of prohibited imports: 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) covers knowing purchase, sale, exchange or other acquisition or disposal: 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, whichever is the lesser. The text read does not say whether these Customs Act penalties apply to morphine alongside section 39(2). Maximum: the highest penalty the Dangerous Drugs Act text provides for a Part IV drug is the section 39(2) band above, and no provision read in the Act or its 2025 amendment provides a death penalty. Tuvalu's general law on capital punishment was not checked.

If prescribed or medical

The medical route, as the text shows it. Section 14A, inserted by section 6 of Act 9 of 2025 (printed page 6), reads “The Minister may issue licenses for the importation, exportation, manufacture, cultivation, sale, or use of dangerous drugs for medical and scientific purposes.” Section 20 excuses possession that the person proves was obtained “in accordance with the prescription of a person whose name appears in the said Medical and Dental Register”. Sections 16 to 19 (printed page 14) require imported Part IV drugs to be deposited in the appointed store and released only on the written authority of the Senior Medical Officer, and only to a person on the Medical and Dental Register or a registered pharmacist or qualified veterinary surgeon. Section 15(1)(c) (printed page 13) empowers the Minister to make rules “regulating the issue by medical practitioners of prescriptions containing any such dangerous drug and the dispensing of any such prescription”. No rules under section 15 are in the text read, and the legislation site's index of laws, as fetched on 7 October 2026, lists none beneath the Act. Paragraph 11 of Part II of Schedule 2, quoted above, covers low strength compounded morphine preparations. Under section 30, a preparation within Part II of Schedule 2 is outside section 14 and sections 16 to 29, including the section 20 possession offence. Section 42 of the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act, Cap. 28.32 (printed page 28) provides: “If a therapeutic product is also a dangerous drug under the Dangerous Drugs Act, the prohibitions, conditions, and requirements in this Act are in addition to those contained in or imposed under the Dangerous drugs Act.” Section 9 of that Act (printed page 13) requires a Tuvalu Medicines Schedule whose classes include “prescription medicines”, “dangerous drugs” and “prohibited substances”. That Schedule was searched for on three routes and no copy was found, so how it classes morphine is shown by no text read.

Documentation

Instruments read on 7 October 2026 from the Tuvalu government's own legislation site: the Dangerous Drugs Act, Cap. 10.10, 2022 Revised Edition (36 pages; sections 1 to 42 and Schedule 2); the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025, Act 9 of 2025 (9 pages, including Schedule 3); section 9 and section 42 of the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act, Cap. 28.32, 2022 Revised Edition; and section 78, sections 212 to 216 and Schedule 2 of the Customs Revenue and Border Protection Act 2014, Cap. 26.04, 2022 Revised Edition. The Dangerous Drugs Act was searched for morphine and the name appears in the section 2 definitions, the Part IV heading, paragraph 1 and paragraph 11 of Schedule 2. The Customs Act text was searched for morphine, heroin, fentanyl, opium, narcotic and dangerous drug, and names only prepared opium. The endnotes (printed pages 35 and 36) print amendment by Act 4 of 2009 (commencement 6 July 2009) and no later amendment, and the legislation site's index of laws lists Act 9 of 2025 as the amending Act beneath the Dangerous Drugs Act; no other amendment since 1 January 2023 was found. The 2022 Revised Edition does not incorporate Act 9 of 2025, so the two are read together. Commencement: Act 9 of 2025 section 1(2) reads “This Act shall come into force on the date of publication.” The Act commenced on the date of its publication under its section 1(2); the PDF prints no calendar date for that publication, so none is given. Medicines Schedule outcome: the Tuvalu Medicines Schedule under section 9 of the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Products Act was searched for on the legislation site, on Ministry of Health and government hosts, and in WHO and Pacific health sources, and no copy was found. This entry rests on the Dangerous Drugs Act and its 2025 amendment. Tuvalu’s Penal Code was not read. 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.

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.