Is Tobacco legal in Côte d'Ivoire?

Legal status

Legal for adults and regulated by Loi n° 2019-676 du 23 juillet 2019 relative à la lutte antitabac en Côte d'Ivoire: selling or offering tobacco to anyone under 18 is banned (article 8), and selling it to a minor is punished by 1 to 5 years and a fine of 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 francs CFA, or one of the two (article 28); single cigarette sales are banned (article 9); smoking is banned in enclosed and open public places, workplaces and public transport; not a controlled drug, as at the INCB Yellow List 65th edition

Consequences if caught

Tobacco is legal for adults in Côte d'Ivoire and regulated by Loi n° 2019-676 du 23 juillet 2019 relative à la lutte antitabac. The law bans selling or offering tobacco or tobacco products to anyone under 18, and having minors sell them (article 8); selling within 200 metres of schools, health facilities, sports and cultural venues and administrations (article 7); single unit sales, with a minimum pack of 20 cigarettes, and sales outside licensed points of sale (article 9); and sale online or by vending machine (article 10). Duty free sale does not apply to tobacco (article 12 or the unnumbered article after it). Under Titre IV it is forbidden to expose others to tobacco smoke and to smoke in enclosed or open public places, places of collective use, workplaces and public transport, and tobacco use by any pregnant woman is forbidden. Penalties fall on sellers and the trade: selling or having tobacco sold to a minor carries 1 to 5 years and a fine of 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 francs CFA, or one of the two (article 28); breaking the single unit ban carries a fine of 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 francs CFA (article 23); advertising carries 1 to 3 years (article 25). The penal articles legible in the scan, 22 to 28, set no penalty on an individual for smoking in a public place; article 21 lets an establishment be closed or lose its licence for any breach. The maximum penalty under this law is imprisonment. No Convention list adopted by 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lutte contre le trafic et l'usage illicites des stupéfiants, des substances psychotropes et leurs précurseurs, which repealed Loi 88-686 of 1988, names it (INCB Yellow List 65th edition July 2026, Green List 36th edition 2025, Red List 23rd edition July 2025), and no classification of it under article 2 or 46 of that law was found, so the drug law's terms, 5 to 10 years for trafficking and 1 to 3 months for holding for one's own use, do not reach this row.

If prescribed or medical

Not a prescription matter: tobacco is sold, under the restrictions above, at licensed points of sale.

Documentation

Loi n° 2019-676 du 23 juillet 2019 relative à la lutte antitabac en Côte d'Ivoire was read on 3 October 2026 from the scan of the signed text held by the Tobacco Control Laws database, eight pages; articles 1, 2, 4 to 12, 14 to 18 and 21 to 34 are legible in it, and the numbers of articles 3 and 13 and of the Titre IV articles did not print. Article 1 defines tobacco as « plante herbacée de la famille des solanacées dont les feuilles sont travaillées et présentées sous diverses formes pour la consommation ». Article 4 bans industrial cultivation of tobacco, and article 22 punishes breaches of the cultivation and manufacturing rules with 1 to 5 years or a fine of 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 francs CFA. Neither tobacco nor nicotine is in the INCB Yellow List 65th edition (July 2026), the Green List 36th edition (2025) or the Red List 23rd edition (July 2025), read on 3 October 2026. 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).

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.