Is Opium legal in Bahamas?

Legal status

Controlled, under three separate heads. Section 6 applies Part II to «raw opium», defined in section 2 as the spontaneously coagulated juice obtained from the capsules of the papaver somniferum. Part III deals with «prepared opium», meaning opium prepared for smoking including dross, and section 8 makes possessing it, smoking it, keeping pipes or utensils for it, or permitting premises to be used for it, offences in their own right. Section 11(1)(a) applies Part IV to «medicinal opium». The word opium appears thirty one times in the Act and ten times in the 1994 Order, where it survives as a concentration rule and in the Schedule III formula «Pulvis ipecacuanhae et opii compositus» at ten per cent opium in powder.

Consequences if caught

Possession without proper authority is an offence under section 29(6) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, Chapter 228, and section 29(2) fixes the penalty: on conviction on information a fine of 125,000 dollars or ten years imprisonment or both; on summary conviction a fine of 50,000 dollars or a term of imprisonment within the range of five to seven years or both. Conviction carries forfeiture to the Crown of all real or personal property in respect of which the offence was committed. Possession with intent to supply is a separate offence under section 22(1), punishable on information by a fine of 500,000 dollars or thirty years imprisonment or both, and summarily by four to seven years with a fine of 250,000 dollars, rising to six to seven years where the offence occurs within one mile of a school. Supply to a child or young person raises the information ceiling to 750,000 dollars or forty years. Section 22(3) presumes an intent to supply where a person is found with two or more packets of dangerous drugs. Section 33A forbids remission of any sentence below the term imposed. Section 22(8)(c) substitutes life imprisonment for the section 22 maxima where the quantity charged exceeds twenty grams of opium, morphine or its salts including diacetylmorphine. The Part III offences in section 8 are additional and do not require any quantity to be proved.

If prescribed or medical

Section 24(1) authorises a qualified person to be in possession of and to supply a dangerous drug so far as necessary for the practice of his profession, and section 2 defines a qualified person as a registered medical practitioner, a registered dentist, a licensed veterinary surgeon, a licensed pharmacist, the public analyst, or a person granted special permission by the Minister. Section 24(2) requires the drug to be kept in a locked receptacle. Section 10(1) permits rules controlling manufacture, sale, possession and supply; no such rules were read for this cell. Import or export by anyone other than a qualified person is an offence under section 9, and needs an authorisation under Part V and permission under section 27.

Documentation

Cultivation of «the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)» is charged under section 29(1)(e). The schedule placement stated here is not printed in the quotation column of the dossier read for this cell; it was read directly from the instrument text. No Ministerial Order later than S.I. 50 of 1996 was read for this cell, so a later addition by Order under section 6, section 11(3) or section 12(3) of the Act is not excluded. The Dangerous Drugs (Application) Order, 2024 was read and is not relied on: it carries no Statutory Instrument number, no signature and a blank execution block reading Made this day of 2024, and the Bahamas legislation portal serves it from its Bills directory rather than its subsidiary legislation directory.

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