Is Opium legal in Côte d'Ivoire?

Legal status

Controlled under Loi n° 2022-407 du 13 juin 2022, which adopts the UN Convention tables by article 45: Opium is in Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention (« OPIUM »); trafficking-type conduct carries 5 to 10 years (articles 3, 4, 5 and 8), holding for one's own use 1 to 3 months (article 10), supplying a minor 5 to 10 years (article 13), and article 15 doubles the penalties in eight aggravated cases; the maximum penalty is imprisonment

Consequences if caught

Opium is controlled in Côte d'Ivoire under Loi n° 2022-407 du 13 juin 2022 portant lutte contre le trafic et l'usage illicites des stupéfiants, des substances psychotropes et leurs précurseurs, because article 45 makes the law's tables the updated Convention tables and opium is in Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention. Under Loi n° 2022-407 du 13 juin 2022, cultivating, producing or manufacturing (article 3), buying or holding for sale, offering, distributing or transporting (article 4) and importing or exporting (article 5) drugs of its tableaux 1 and 2 each carry 5 to 10 years, and the same conduct with tableau 3 drugs carries 5 to 10 years under article 8. The fines differ: 500,000 to 50,000,000 francs under articles 3 and 4, 1,000,000 to 100,000,000 under article 5 and 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 under article 8. The law does not say which of its tableaux 1, 2 or 3 a given Convention schedule becomes, so the fine band is not fixed, but the prison range is 5 to 10 years whichever of the three applies. Holding a drug for one's own use carries 1 to 3 months and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 francs (article 10), and article 19 requires the prosecutor to order appropriate treatment first, with no prosecution if it is completed. Giving or offering a drug to someone for their personal consumption carries 1 to 3 years (article 7); facilitating another's illicit use, including by providing premises, or obtaining or dispensing drugs on a false prescription, carries 2 to 5 years (article 6); knowingly supplying a minor carries 5 to 10 years (article 13); and driving under the influence carries 1 to 5 years (article 11). Article 15 doubles the penalties in eight listed cases, among them violence or a weapon, a public official or health professional, supply to a vulnerable person, use of a minor, a drug that causes death or harms health, and offences in or near schools, prisons, health facilities or places of worship, so a ten year maximum becomes twenty. A court may add a ban on leaving the national territory with withdrawal of the passport for 5 to 10 years (article 17). Police custody for these offences is 96 hours, renewable once (article 25). Attempt is punishable (article 41), and mitigating circumstances and suspended sentences apply only to drug users (article 42). No article of the law provides death or life imprisonment. The maximum penalty for drug offences is imprisonment.

If prescribed or medical

The law read gives no personal medical exemption for opium. The only lawful holding it describes outside a prescription is by persons the competent authority authorises for medical, scientific, teaching or forensic research (article 38).

Documentation

Loi n° 2022-407 du 13 juin 2022 names no substance itself. Article 45 provides « Les tableaux visés par la présente loi sont les tableaux actualisés issus des Conventions internationales sur les stupéfiants, les substances psychotropes et leurs précurseurs ratifiées par la Côte d'Ivoire », and article 46 lets the ministers responsible for drugs and for health classify any other plant or substance by joint arrêté. Article 1 defines a stupéfiant as a substance in the four tables of the 1961 Single Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol, « ou toute autre substance mise sous contrôle international ou national », and a substance psychotrope as one « inscrite aux tableaux 1, 2, 3 et 4 de la convention des Nations unies sur les substances psychotropes de 1971 ». Article 2 classes as stupéfiants or psychotropes the plants and substances placed in « tableaux 1, 2 et 3 » by the Conventions, their preparations, and « toutes autres plantes et substances dangereuses pour la santé, en raison des effets nocifs et selon la gravité du risque pour la santé publique que peut entrainer leur abus »; the text read does not say whether that last clause works by itself or only through an article 46 arrêté. The law repealed Loi 88-686 of 1988 (article 47). The INCB Yellow List, 65th edition (July 2026), French text prints opium in Schedule I as « OPIUM » (code NO 001). The entry describes opium as « le latex épaissi du pavot à opium (plante de l'espèce Papaver somniferum L.) ». « MORPHINE alcaloïde principal de l'opium et du pavot à opium » and the concentrate of poppy straw are separate Schedule I entries; « CODÉINE » is in Schedule II. Côte d'Ivoire is a party to the 1961 Single Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol (28 February 1973), to the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances (accession, 11 April 1984) and to the 1988 Convention (ratification, 25 November 1991), as the UN Treaty Collection status pages read on 3 October 2026 record. The text of Loi n° 2022-407 du 13 juin 2022 was read on 3 October 2026 in the article by article copy at loidici.biz (https://loidici.biz/?p=73171), because the AfricanLII record did not resolve at agp.africanlii.org and africanlii.org answered with a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403); it was not checked against the Journal officiel printing. The wording of articles 2, 45 and 46 matches the AfricanLII text as returned in a web search summary, and articles 10, 19 and 20 match the ISSUP paper on Côte d'Ivoire.

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