Is Tobacco legal in Solomon Islands?

Legal status

Legal, with limits. Tobacco is regulated by the Tobacco Control Act 2010 (No. 2 of 2010), reprint as in force 5 February 2024, which commenced on 31 May 2012 and was amended only by Act No. 17 of 2023 (sections 10 and 16). It regulates labelling, distribution, sale, advertisement and smoking of tobacco products, and does not prohibit tobacco. Section 2 defines 'tobacco' as 'any preparation of dried leaves of the nicotiana tabacum plant of the nightshade family' and 'tobacco product' as 'any product from tobacco whether or not manufactured and intended for use by smoking, inhaling, mastication, orally taking by mouth or administration through the skin, and includes nasal or oral snuff or any product containing tobacco'. The limits the Act sets are: no sale, gift or supply to a child, defined as a person under eighteen (section 13); a licence from the Permanent Secretary to manufacture, sell, distribute, import or export any tobacco product (section 15); sale of cigarettes only in unbroken packages (section 12); no vending machines (section 14); health warnings on packages (section 9); no advertisement (section 4); and smoking bans in indoor parts of workplaces, schools, hospitals and health clinics, public transport and areas the Minister declares smoke-free (sections 19 to 22). The Poisons Rules carve tobacco out of the poison rules: Group II of the Third Schedule (printed page 3017) lists the poison 'Nicotine.' against the article 'Tobacco.', and rule 10(b) provides that nothing in Part VI of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act or the Rules applies to it. Tobacco is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Act or the proclamations read. A notice in Gazette No. 158 of 5 November 2025, made under section 28(1) of the Tobacco Control Act, appoints authorised officers, listed in the gazette copy as numbers 1 to 107. The regulations the Act refers to (warnings, toxic constituents) were not located, and the Liquor Act text mentions tobacco in its licence provisions and was not relied on. 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. The Dangerous Drugs Act lists can move as well: under section 13(2) the Minister may by proclamation apply Part III to any other drug, the reprint read is as in force at 1 October 2009, incorporating amendments only up to Act No. 14 of 2009; this text does not rule out a later proclamation or amendment.

Consequences if caught

Personal possession and use: the Act states no offence of possession of tobacco by an adult and no offence of smoking in private. Smoking is an offence in the places the Act lists: section 19(5) (workplaces and declared smoke-free areas), section 20(3) (schools, including grounds), section 21(3) (hospitals and health clinics, including outdoor areas) and section 22(6) (public transport and waiting rooms). Sale: section 13(1) says 'No person shall sell, give or in any way provide any tobacco product to a child', section 13(3) removes the defence of believing the buyer was over eighteen unless the accused took all reasonable steps to ascertain the age, and sections 12 and 14 and 9 set the pack, machine and warning rules. Trafficking, import, export and manufacture: section 15(1) forbids manufacturing, selling, distributing, importing or exporting any tobacco product without a licence, which covers each of those as an offence under section 15(7); the Act states no separate offence of possession for supply. Cultivation: the Act states no offence for growing tobacco. Penalty: section 37 says a person convicted of an offence under the Act is liable, for an individual, for a first offence to a fine not exceeding 20,000 penalty units or imprisonment not exceeding two years, and for a second or later offence to a fine not exceeding 50,000 penalty units or imprisonment not exceeding four years; the wording is 'or', so the fine and imprisonment are alternatives. For a body corporate the first offence fine is not more than 500,000 penalty units and a later offence not more than 1,000,000. Section 38 makes officers of a body corporate liable unless they prove no consent or connivance and due diligence. Orders on conviction: section 34(1) provides that on a conviction under section 4 the court, in addition to any penalty, orders that the advertisement be removed, obscured or destroyed by an authorised officer and that the convicted person pay the reasonable costs; section 34(2) provides that on a conviction under section 9, 11, 12, 15 or 17 the court may order the tobacco product to be confiscated, forfeited to the Crown and destroyed by an authorised officer, with the reasonable costs payable by the convicted person. The Act does not state the value of a penalty unit and none is converted here. The Act and the drug provisions read state no death penalty, and the Dangerous Drugs Act does not apply to tobacco on the pages read.

If prescribed or medical

No prescription route applies to tobacco as a consumer product, and none is stated in the Tobacco Control Act. Under the Pharmacy and Poisons Act the poison rules do not apply to tobacco (rule 10(b) with Group II of the Third Schedule). A prescription or medicine route for nicotine products other than tobacco is dealt with in the nicotine answer, and the Fourth Schedule to the Poisons Rules does not list tobacco or nicotine.

Documentation

Importing tobacco products needs a licence: section 15(1) says 'No person shall manufacture, sell, distribute, import or export or cause to be manufactured, sold, distributed, imported or exported any tobacco product except with a licence issued under this section', and section 15(6) says a licence under any other law does not authorise it. The Act states no personal allowance for a traveller, so none is established, and the Customs and Excise Act, which may set allowances, was not read. Section 9(7) requires imported tobacco products to carry a statement that they are intended to be sold in Solomon Islands, and section 11 prohibits import of products whose packaging is false or misleading. Whether duty or an allowance applies to a person carrying cigarettes into Solomon Islands is not established.

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.