Is Opium legal in Solomon Islands?

Legal status

Controlled. Opium is controlled under all three Parts of the Dangerous Drugs Act (Cap. 98, reprint as in force 1 October 2009), and the form matters. Raw opium: section 4(1) applies Part I to 'raw opium, coca leaf and Indian hemp and resins obtained from Indian hemp and preparations of which such resins form the base', and section 2 defines raw opium as 'the spontaneously coagulated juice obtained from the capsules of the Papaver somniferum'. Prepared opium: Part II (sections 11 and 12) applies to 'the product of raw opium obtained by a series of special operations', including dross and residues remaining after opium has been smoked. Medicinal opium: section 13(1)(a) applies Part III to 'medicinal opium', defined in section 2 as raw opium adapted for medicinal use in accordance with the British Pharmacopoeia. The proclamation of 21 September 1987 (LN 101 of 1987), paragraph 1, printed page 2822, also lists 'Medicinal opium' and 'Opium tincture', read from the page image. The poppy plant and its seed are dealt with in Part I (sections 5, 7 and 8). Opium is also in the Poisons List, Schedule B Part I of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act, in the first schedule to the Poisons Rules with 'except substances containing less than 0.2 per cent of morphine calculated as anhydrous morphine' (printed page 3015), and 'Opium Tincture' and 'Poppy Capsule' are printed in the Fourth Schedule (pages 3035 and 3037), which are sale restrictions and do not change the drug control above. The named entries govern.

Consequences if caught

Raw opium (Part I). Import and export: section 4(2) reads 'No person shall import or export any of the substances to which this Part of this Act applies', section 5 bars import or export of any seed of the opium poppy 'or any portion of the aforesaid plants', and section 6 forfeits unlawfully imported or exported substances. Cultivation: section 7 reads 'No person shall cultivate in Solomon Islands the opium poppy', and section 8(a) makes every person 'growing opium poppy... whether for private use or otherwise' guilty of an offence against the Act. Personal possession and sale: section 8(b) makes every person 'found in possession of or selling, or who shall have given or sold, to any person any substance to which this Part of this Act applies' guilty of an offence, with no quantity threshold and no medical exception in Part I. Giving is covered as well as selling. Powers: section 9 lets a police officer enter on a warrant and arrest without a warrant a person carrying or conveying raw opium, and section 10 allows seizure and destruction of poppy found on a plantation. Prepared opium (Part II). Section 11 prohibits import or export of prepared opium and of pipes or utensils for smoking it, and section 12(1) makes it an offence to manufacture, sell or deal in it, to possess it, to permit premises to be used for preparing or smoking it, to manage such premises, to possess pipes or utensils, or for a person who 'smokes or otherwise uses prepared opium, or frequents any place used for the purpose of opium smoking'. Use is therefore an offence for prepared opium. Medicinal opium and opium tincture (Part III). Section 20 makes possession an offence unless the person proves it was obtained under the authority of the Act, on a prescription of a registered medical practitioner, or from a person having authority to sell it; sections 14 and 22 to 30 control import and export; and the sale and manufacture rules the Minister may make under section 15(1) were not located. Penalty: for each of these the Act says guilty of 'an offence against this Act' and prescribes no other penalty, so section 39(2) applies. On conviction by the court sitting with assessors the fine is 100,000 penalty units, or imprisonment for ten years, or both; on summary conviction the fine is 5,000 penalty units, or imprisonment for six months, or both; and all articles are forfeited. Fine and imprisonment may be cumulative. 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). 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. The Act's drug provisions read state no death penalty. The Act does not state the value of a penalty unit and none is converted here.

If prescribed or medical

Only medicinal opium and opium tincture (Part III) have a medical route; raw opium and prepared opium have none in the Act, and Part I has no prescription exception. For Part III the medical route is in the Dangerous Drugs Act: section 15(1)(c) lets the Minister make rules regulating prescriptions containing a Part III drug and their dispensing, section 15(2) requires the rules to authorise a pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist to retail, dispense or compound such drugs, section 19 limits withdrawal from the store to listed medical and approved persons, and section 20 lets a person prove the drug was obtained on a prescription. Rules under section 15 other than the 2025 methylamphetamine rules were not located, so detailed prescription rules 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 add a second route. The Fourth Schedule lists 'Opium Tincture' with no exception (printed page 3035) and 'Poppy Capsule' (printed page 3037); 'Opium' itself and 'Medicinal Opium' were not found as Fourth Schedule entries, so rule 11 applies by name to the tincture and the capsule and not to those two. Rule 11(1) of the Poisons Rules (printed page 3004) reads 'It shall not be lawful to sell any poison included in the Fourth Schedule to these Rules except on and in accordance with the prescription given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist or a qualified veterinary surgeon in the form provided by this rule'. Rule 11(2) applies it to a sale even where the sale is exempted by section 57 of the Act, but not to a sale exempted by section 58 (wholesale dealing, and sales to a practitioner for his profession). 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 (or of the person to whom the medicine is delivered, if given by a veterinary surgeon), 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, the dispenser must note the seller's name, address and date on it, and it must be kept on the premises for two years. Section 2 of the Act reads 'poison includes the several substances mentioned in the poisons list in Schedule B', and rule 2(1) of the Poisons Rules (printed pages 3000 and 3001) defines 'poisons list' as 'the Poisons List contained in Schedule B of the Act'. Rule 11 is a sale rule under the pharmacy law and is separate from drug control under the Dangerous Drugs Act. The Poisons Rules were read as printed in the 1996 Revised Edition with margin notes amended to LN 63 of 1988; whether they were amended later or are still in force is not established, and the 2024 reprint of the Act does not print them.

Documentation

Importing opium in any form is controlled by the Dangerous Drugs Act. Raw opium and the poppy plant and seed: section 4(2) and section 5 prohibit import and export, and Part I contains no authorisation scheme and no exception for medical use or for a traveller. Prepared opium: section 11 prohibits import and export outright. Medicinal opium and opium tincture: import needs an import authorisation in Form C under section 26, section 28 forbids import without one, section 29 requires an export authorisation or diversion certificate from a country party to the Convention, and section 31 sets transit conditions, with the only quantity exemption in section 31(5) for the medical stores of a ship or aircraft. Section 3 limits entry to an approved port; the notice printed at page 2821 of the 1996 edition (LN 41 of 1968) approves Honiara port and Henderson aerodrome, and later notices were not read. Under the Pharmacy and Poisons Act section 52(1) forbids importing 'any poison' except under a Board licence, with a proviso for qualified practitioners, pharmacists, veterinary surgeons and dentists importing for bona fide treatment; the proviso does not mention a traveller. The Customs and Excise Act was not read. A Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2025 is reported as before Parliament; it was not read, and a Bill is not law.

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.