Cannabis Freedom Index

Changelog 96eb2c8

Record Ghana's personal-purchase penalty separately from the possession fine.

Fixes #20. Section 45 can bring four to ten years for buying for personal use, and the 2020 score moves to the 11 May assent and Gazette date.

1 history entry edited1 country profile edited1 article edited2 files of code, design or docs +98 −28 lines

History changes.yaml

Edited 1

Ghana treats drug use as a health issue

date

2020-0305-2011

description

The Narcotics Control Commission Act was assented to on 11 May 2020 and notified in the Gazette the same day. It replaced prison for possession for personal use with a fine, and described of 200 to 500 penalty units. Buying a narcotic drug or plant for personal use asremained a public health matterseparate offence, with a fine of 2,000 to 10,000 penalty units or four to ten years. Before the Act, possession carried a minimum of ten years.

sources

Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019) GhaLII — Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020, version of 2 August 2023 Wikipedia — Cannabis in Ghana 1 unchanged

Countries and states 1 file

Ghana countries/gh.yaml

summary

The 2020 Narcotics Control Commission Act treatsfines possession for personal use as. Buying a health matter (narcotic drug or plant for personal use is a separate offence, and the Second Schedule allows a fine rather thanof 2,000 to 10,000 penalty units or four to ten years in prison). A 2023 amendment licenses low-THC cultivation for industrial and medicinal purposes.

segments › possession › text

The 2020 Narcotics Control Commission Act replaced prisonHolding a narcotic drug or plant for possession for personal use with is an offence under sections 37(2)(a) and 41(2)(a). The Second Schedule sets a fine of 200 to 500 penalty units (roughly GH¢2,400–6,000), and up to fifteen months in prison if that fine is not paid. ItBuying a narcotic drug or plant for personal use is still an offencesection 45(2). The Schedule sets that penalty at 2, and failure000 to pay can lead10,000 penalty units or four to jailten years in prison, the same range as buying with intent to sell. A court may also order the buyer to attend treatment at a facility approved by the Commission. The earlier law imposed a minimum of ten years for possession.

segments › possession › sources

idpcacttext, actghalii, idpc

segments › enforcement › text

APossession for personal use is punished with a fine rather than prison. Buying for personal possession — the first such reformuse can be punished with four to ten years in West Africa — while cultivationprison or with a fine of 2,000 to 10,000 penalty units. Cultivation and trafficking still carry heavylong sentences. The Act was the first in West Africa to replace prison with a fine for simple possession.

segments › enforcement › sources

idpcacttext, actidpc

segments › access › text

No legal source for THC cannabis. Buying it without lawful authority is an offence under section 45.

segments › access › sources

graphic, acttext

context › consequences › text

The fine follows aA conviction, so for possession for personal use is a fine, and the record remains. A conviction for buying for personal use can be a prison sentence of four to ten years.

context › consequences › sources

actacttext

context › visitors › text

There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Since the Narcotics Control Commission Act of 2020 possessionPossession for personal use is punished with a fine of 200 to 500 penalty units, notwith up to fifteen months in prison, though it remains an if the fine is not paid. Buying cannabis for personal use is a separate offence and failure to pay can leadbring four to jailten years in prison or a fine of 2,000 to 10,000 penalty units.

context › visitors › sources

idpcacttext, actghalii, graphic

sources

Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019) GhaLII — Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020, version of 2 August 2023 5 unchanged

Articles and atlas entries 1

ghana-narcotics-commission-act-2020 articles/ghana-narcotics-commission-act-2020.md

text

On 20 March 2020 the Parliament of Ghana passed the Narcotics Control Commission Act. For someone caught withholding drugs for their own use, it replaced a prison sentence with a fine. It was signed into lawThe President assented on 11 May 2020, stopping short of full decriminalisation: drugand the Gazette carried the Act the same day. Drug use stayed an offence. ## Five years at least Under the [1990 law](/history/ghana-pndcl … ium stressed what it did not mean: "This does not mean that drug use has been legalised." Prison was no longerFor possession, the default answer to using drugssentence became the fine. The Act also provided for licensing cannabis with less than 0.3 per cent THC for industrial, medical and research purposes. ## Buying is a different offence Section 45 makes it an offence to buy a narcotic drug or plant for personal use, and it uses the same Second Schedule range as buying in order to sell: a fine of 2,000 to 10,000 penalty units, or four to ten years in prison. The default-sentence column for that row is blank. A court that convicts someone under the personal-purchase offence may also order treatment at a facility the Commission approves. The possession fine applies to holding the drug, and the section 45 range applies to buying it. ## The licensing clause That last part, section 43, did not survive long. In [July 2022](/histor … t by the ambition of its law," it concluded, "but by the strength of its implementation."

sources

Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019) 4 unchanged

Code, design and documents 2 files

docs/research/profile-legal-gh-2026-10-23.md +14 −0
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Ghana personal purchase, 23 October 2026
+
+Issue #20. The profile described the Narcotics Control Commission Act as a fine for personal use and left out section 45.
+
+Read from the Act 1019 PDF (assent and Gazette notification both printed as 11 May 2020):
+
+- Sections 37(2)(a) and 41(2)(a): possession for use is a fine. Second Schedule row: not less than 200 and not more than 500 penalty units. The custodial column is N/A. The default column is not more than fifteen months if the fine is not paid.
+- Section 45(2): purchasing a narcotic drug or plant for personal use is an offence. Section 45(1) is purchase with intent to sell or supply. Subsection (3) sends both to the same Second Schedule row: not less than 2,000 and not more than 10,000 penalty units, OR not less than four and not more than ten years. The default column is N/A.
+- Section 45(5): a court may order treatment for a subsection (2) conviction, without prejudice to the penalty.
+- Section 46 mitigation applies to section 44, administering a drug to another person.
+
+GhaLII’s 2 August 2023 consolidation still contains section 45. Its amendment note is attached to section 43 (Act 1100 of 2023). Parliament’s bitstream PDF returned 403, so the section text was read from the copy at tbhivcare.org and checked against the GhaLII HTML. The GhaLII schedule row for possession rendered “not less than five hundred”; the PDF reads “not more than five hundred”.
+
+No sentencing-frequency source was read, so possession stays at 2 and enforcement stays at 3. No new history event: section 45 is in the 2020 Act. The scored date moves from 20 March 2020, the day the existing article gives for passage, to 11 May 2020, the assent and Gazette date printed on the Act. The 2020 year-end score is unchanged.
scripts/history-scope.test.cjs +14 −0
@@ -177,2 +177,16 @@ test("Uzbekistan and Honduras profiles follow the current criminal codes", () =>
   assert.equal(code.before, undefined);
 });
+
+test("Ghana distinguishes the personal-possession fine from buying for personal use", () => {
+  const gh = y.load(fs.readFileSync("countries/gh.yaml", "utf8"));
+  assert.match(gh.summary, /four to ten years/);
+  assert.match(gh.segments.possession.text, /section 45\(2\)/);
+  assert.match(gh.segments.possession.text, /200 to 500/);
+  assert.match(gh.context.visitors.text, /four to ten years/);
+  assert.equal(gh.scores.possession, 2);
+  assert.equal(gh.scores.enforcement, 3);
+  const act = byId["ghana-narcotics-commission-act-2020"];
+  assert.equal(act.date, "2020-05-11");
+  assert.match(act.description, /2,000 to 10,000/);
+  assert.equal(act.before.possession, 0);
+});
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