Somalia countries/so.yaml
Article 5 of Law 46 of 1970 prescribes two to seven years and a fine of 2,000–20,000 Somali shillings for unauthorised acquisition or possession of listed narcotics.[@act1970] Decree 227 lists cannabis and hashish.[@schedule1970] These are verified historical statutory provisions; a complete later consolidation and present sentencing practice across all administrations have not been established.
label Unauthorised possession, Article 5 (1970) · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 2 years · prison 7 years · fine 20000 · note Two to seven years and 2,000–20,000 shillings; historical baseline
Article 4 of the 1970 law requires special Health Ministry authorisation to cultivate, harvest or process plants yielding controlled substances; breach carries six months to two years plus a fine.[@act1970] The 1984 decree separately prescribes ten years for unlawful manufacture or production, without expressly resolving its relationship to cultivation under article 4.[@drugs1984] No lawful home-growing route was established.
act1970, schedule1970, drugs1984
Depends entirely on who controls the territory: state courts, regional administrations, or Al-Shabaab, which imposes corporal punishment for intoxicants.[@euaa]
Article 14 of the 1970 law restricts transfers even when free to authorised recipients.[@act1970] Article 1 of Decree-Law 5 of 1984 prescribes ten years and a 50,000-shilling fine for unlawful manufacture, production, import, dealing or supplying another person.[@drugs1984] This is a statutory baseline, not a verified nationwide sentencing tariff today.
label Supply or production, Decree-Law 5 (1984) · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · prison 10 years · fine 50000 · note Ten years and 50,000 shillings; statutory baseline
Article 2 of the 1984 decree punishes allowing a public or private place to be used for dr … ing fine; entering such a place to consume carries three years and a 20,000-shilling fine.[@drugs1984] This is a consumption-premises offence, not evidence of an identical sentence for every act of private use. EUAA documents separate intoxicant prohibitions in Al-Shabaab-controlled areas.[@euaa]
label Allowing premises for consumption (1984) · treatment criminal · term Permitting use · prison 5 years · fine 25000, label Entering premises to consume (1984) · treatment criminal · term Consumption · prison 3 years · fine 20000
No functioning cannabis-specific patient or recreational supply route was established.[@act1970] The 1970 law does provide a general narcotics medicines framework: authorised institutions and pharmacies, prescriptions, medicinal doses and record keeping.[@act1970,schedule1970] Those provisions alone do not demonstrate that cannabis medicines are available.
The 1970 law puts narcotic production under Health Ministry control and sets annual laboratory quotas.[@act1970] Its cannabis schedule and the 1984 production offence establish controls, but these texts do not establish the present scale of lawful or illicit cannabis cultivation.[@schedule1970,drugs1984]
Articles 6 and 15–17 of the 1970 law regulate institutional narcotics use, dispensing on prescription and inappropriate prescribing.[@act1970] This is a general medicines framework; a working cannabis programme and cannabis-specific prescribing permission were not verified.
The 1984 decree assigned drug cases to the National Security Court and its regional branches, with transitional rules for pending cases and earlier offences.[@drugs1984] These historical procedural provisions should not be read as proof that those institutions operate today.
The texts reviewed do not provide a recreational club exemption: the 1970 law restricts gratuitous transfers, and the 1984 decree punishes organising public or private drug-consumption premises.[@act1970,drugs1984] This establishesstates the statutory restriction, not a census of associations operating informally.
The reviewed drug laws contain no recreational visitor exemption.[@act1970] The historical possession and supply restrictions apply generally; no verified lawful recreational purchase route for visitors was established.[@act1970,drugs1984] The general prescription provisions should not be treated as permission to carry cannabis across the border.[@act1970]
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime — Somalia country profile 2025 (PDF) Kaab TV — CCTV exposes major drug smuggling operation at Mogadishu airport (25 January 2026) Goobjoog English — Banadir regional officials arrest suspected drug traffickers in Mogadishu (6 April 2024) Raxanreeb Online — Somali security forces arrest drug traffickers in Mogadishu (31 December 2024) 6 unchanged
word Cannabis · lang Somali · meaning cannabis; listed by name in Decree 227 · sources schedule1970, word Hashish · lang Somali · meaning cannabis resin; listed by name in Decree 227 and used by police and press · sources schedule1970
label Unauthorised cultivation (Article 4, 1970) · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 6 months · prison 2 years · note Plus a fine; historical baseline, label Unlawful manufacture or production (1984 decree) · treatment criminal · term Production · prison 10 years · note Relationship to Article 4 cultivation expressly unresolved
none
No industrial-hemp exception was verified: the 1970 law and Decree 227 list cannabis and hashish with no low-THC distinction, and no hemp production is documented.[@act1970,schedule1970]
act1970, schedule1970
The organised-crime index describes Somalia's cannabis market as small with low but persistent criminal involvement.[@gitoc25] What trade exists is shadowed by insecurity: CCTV exposed airport staff and security officials smuggling drugs including cannabis through Mogadishu airport, with 189 cartons seized in September and burned — and no arrests made.[@kaab26] The 2026 seizure was intercepted before the drugs left the airport.[@kaab26]
gitoc25, kaab26
In April 2024 Banadir officials arrested four suspected traffickers in Mogadishu's Juungal and Yaqshi districts and confiscated sacks of hashish.[@goobjoog24] A December 2024 operation in Gubadley netted four more suspects and seven loads of cannabis.[@raxanreeb24]
goobjoog24, raxanreeb24