Gambia countries/gm.yaml
The enacted 2014 amendment gives first-time cannabis possession its own scale. For 0.1–150 grams it allows a fine of 50,000–100,000 dalasi, one to two years in prison, or both;[@amend2014] for 151–500 grams, 100,000–150,000 dalasi or two to five years, or both;[@amend2014] from 501 grams, 150,000–250,000 dalasi or three to ten years, or both.[@amend2014] The general possession rule remains separate, as do trafficking offences.[@law2003]
Unauthorised cannabis growing is prohibited.[@law2003] The 2014 amendment expressly extends the cultivation provision to prohibited drugs and the … penalty allows a fine of at least 50,000 dalasi, at least three years in prison, or both.[@amend2014] The law separately provides for specifically authorised scientific cultivation.[@law2003]
Prison remains possible for first-time cannabis possession, alongside a fine alternative.[@amend2014] The drug agency’s 2019–2023 strategy described burdensome fines, prison sentences and limited rehabilitation, and called for alternatives for young and first-time offenders.[@strategy2019]
The 2011 amendment raised the minimum fine in the general trafficking clause to ten million dalasi, alongside at least ten years in prison.[@amend2011] The quantity rule covers more than ten grams of cannabis resin or two kilograms of cannabis, unless the accused proves the possession was not for trafficking.[@law2003] Separate supply offences also apply.[@amend2010]
Use is prosecuted through possession.[@point]
None: no lawful cannabis supply route operates.[@point]
NoneNo licensed production: unauthorised growing is prohibited, and only specifically authorised scientific cultivation is provided for.[@law2003]
pointlaw2003
None.
point
No medical cannabis programme: the reviewed sources establish no patient route, and the only authorised growing is scientific.[@point,law2003]
point, law2003
A conviction is a criminal record, as the D150,000 possession fine case shows.[@gam]
No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@point,hoc]
There is no legal recreational supply.[@amend2014] The 2014 first-offender scale for cannabis possession starts at 0.1–150 grams, with a fine … in prison, or both; the enacted scale provides longer prison ranges for larger quantities.[@amend2014]
Motor Traffic Act section 48(1) prohibits drug-impaired driving, attempting to drive, or being in charge of a motor vehicle on a road, parking place or other public place.[@traffic2009] It covers both inability to control the vehicle properly and impaired efficiency as a driver.[@traffic2009] Section 48(3) permits a uniformed police officer to arrest an offender without warrant.[@traffic2009] The security-legislation publication is marked Issue 1/2009: its main text describes twelv … penalty schedule give different sanction wording, including a five-year disqualification.[@traffic2009] Current fines and licence-ban terms are therefore left unresolved pending amendment/consolidation checks.[@traffic2009] Drug toxicology, specimen-refusal rules and a numeric THC cutoff were not established.[@traffic2009]
The Drug Law Enforcement Agency reported 1,219 people arrested in 1,208 drug cases in 2024;[@point25] 1,014 were Gambians and 205 foreigners.[@point25] It seized 1.9 tonnes of cannabis sativa and 2.2 tonnes from plantations, and cannabis made up 54.7% of all seizures.[@point25]
Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office record 1,924 kg of herbal cannabis seized in 2024, against 1,954 kg in 2023, and 14 kg of cannabis resin seized in 2024, against 9.6 kg in 2023.[@unodc_szr] The UN publishes them as kilogram equivalents, and countries count seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@unodc_szr]
The African Roots of Marijuana 11 unchanged
word Diamba · lang English (Gambia) · meaning cannabis; the coast-wide word moved through Gambian ports · sources duvall19
GMD
label First-time possession, 0.1–150 g · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 1 year · prison 2 years · fine min 50000 · fine 100000 · note Fine or prison or both, label First-time possession, 151–500 g · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 2 years · prison 5 years · fine min 100000 · fine 150000 · note Fine or prison or both, label First-time possession, from 501 g · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison min 3 years · prison 10 years · fine min 150000 · fine 250000 · note Fine or prison or both
GMD
label Unauthorised cultivation · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 3 years · fine min 50000 · note Fine of at least 50,000 dalasi, at least three years, or both, label Authorised scientific cultivation · treatment legal · term Licensed research growing · note Specifically authorised; no general licence route
There is no legal recreational supply. First-time possession runs on the 2014 scale: 0.1–150 g brings a 50,000–100,000-dalasi fine or one to two years, rising to 150,000–250,000 dalasi or three to ten years from 501 g; trafficking starts at ten years and ten million dalasi.[@amend2014,amend2011] In 2024 the drug agency arrested 1,219 people in 1,208 cases, seizing 1.9 tonnes of cannabis plus 2.2 tonnes from plantations.[@point25]
amend2014, amend2011, point25
none
No industrial-hemp exception was verified: the 2003 Act and its amendments list cannabis in the First Schedule and restrict growing to authorised purposes with no low-THC distinction, and no hemp production is documented.[@law2003,amend2014]
law2003, amend2014
The coast's word is [diamba](/culture/language/diamba/): Bantu in origin, it moved up the coast through ports including Bathurst, carried by the seamen and traders the colonial state tried to police.[@duvall19] Gambia banned the plant in the 1930s ban wave; the modern law is the 2003 Act with its 2010, 2011 and 2014 amendments, and the 2019 strategy that called for treatment and alternatives to prison (see the [2019 strategy](/history/gambia-drug-strategy-rehabilitation-2019/)).
duvall19