Tunisia: Law 52 penalty tables, context sections and 15 history entries

Parliament amended Law 52 so that judges can weighcould apply mitigating circumstances to use or possession for personal use and to knowingly frequenting a drug den. The change was not limited to first or second offence-time offenders, and order alternatives to prison such as treatmenttrafficking penalties were untouched. It took effect on 8 May 2017.

A judge at the El Kef Court of First Instance sentenced three young men to 30 years in prison for using cannabis in a public place. The prosecutor saidcourt applied the maximum appliedpenalties available under Article 11 of Law 52 becauseafter the act took place in a sports stadium, which lets a judge add 20 years to five for consumption and five for possessionone of the aggravating locations in Article 11; the judgment's arithmetic was not independently verified. The men had spent a year and a half in pretrial detention. Hundreds joined protests in T … echichi, met civil society groups and spoke of breaking with the deterrent penal approach.

'Law 52' imposed still makes use or possession of any amount a mandatorycrime with one-year sentence for use. Since to five years, though since 2017 judges have discretion, but thousands are still jailedmay go below the minimum. A full rewrite has been in committee since 2025.

Law 92-52 of 1992 imposed a mandatory minimum ofpunishes use or possession for personal consumption with one yearto five years in prison and a 1,000–3,000 dinar fine for possessing or using cannabis (zatla), with no room for mitigating circumstancesquantity threshold. An April[@l52] Since the 2017 amendment gave, judges discretionmay apply the Penal Code's mitigating circumstances to go below that foruse and possession, lowering the sentence to as little as one day or converting it into a fine of up to 6,000 dinars.[@l52,l2017,penal53] The change was not limited to first-time usersoffenders, and it does not apply to trafficking. Prison remains the standard outcome for others[@l2017] Knowingly frequenting a drug den carries six months to three years and a 1,000–5,000 dinar fine.[@l52]

hrwl52, tdl2017, penal53

Growing any narcotic plant is banned outright by Article 2 bans cultivating, harvesting and producing cannabis at any stage of Law 92growth, with no hemp or personal-52growing exception.[@l52] Growing for trafficking carries six to ten years in prison and a fine of 5,000 to –10,000 dinarsdinar fine, and a few plants grown for personal use are charged under Article 5the use-or-possession offence instead.[@l52] Landowners must destroy plants that come up on their land or pay 50 dinars per plant.[@l52]

l52, hrw

Drug enforcement has intensified. The interior ministry told parliament that 15,253 drug cases and 27, mostly cannabis use338 people were recorded in 2025, have accountednearly 89% of them aged 19 to 40.[@tnum26] The justice minister said in November 2025 that more than 10,000 prisoners were held for drug offences, in a large sharesystem holding over 30,000 people against a design capacity of Tunisia's prison populationabout 18, and the 2017 reform000.[@td] A 40-article bill to replace Law 52 has been in committee since April 2025 but had not changed thatbeen voted by October 2026.[@webdo26]

tnum26, td, hrwwebdo26

Supply for trafficking carries long sentencessix to ten years and a 5,000–10,000 dinar fine; importing, exporting or smuggling with intent to circulate carries ten to twenty years and a 20,000–100,000 dinar fine.[@l52] A criminal association for drug offences carries twenty years to life, and premises used for use, storage or concealment carry ten to twenty years.[@l52] Penalties reach the offence's maximum when it involves a minor, a school, a stadium, a café, a hospital or another listed public place.[@l52]

hrwl52

Use is a crime under the same article as personal possession: one to five years and a 1, typically proved by000–3,000 dinar fine.[@l52] Judges may now reduce that to one day or a fine, and a person who asks for detoxification before the facts are discovered can avoid prosecution by completing treatment.[@l52,l2017] In practice urine testtests taken in custody are the usual evidence. In 2021 a court in El Kef sentenced three young men to 30 years for smoking cannabis in a public stadium, triggering protests.[@hrw]

meshl52, l2017, hrw

NoneNo legal source. Article 2 allows narcotics only for authorised medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmacy and scientific research, and no approved cannabis medicine, patient route or recreational licence was found.[@l52] The medical and research exceptions run through the health ministry's pharmacy directorate, not a cannabis programme.[@l52]

tdl52

NoneNo lawful cannabis production. Article 2 bans all agricultural and industrial operations except authorised medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmacy and scientific research, and no cannabis cultivation or processing for the market was authorised.[@l52]

tdl52

None.

td

No medical cannabis programme. Article 2 permits narcotics for authorised medicine and pharmacy, but no approved cannabis medicine, patient registry or prescription route was found.[@l52] Courts may order detoxification after conviction, and a first voluntary treatment request can prevent prosecution.[@l52]

tdl52

A conviction is a criminal record that blockscan block public-sector jobsemployment and travel.[@hrw] Courts may also impose up to ten years of administrative surveillance and five to ten years' loss of public office, civic rights and passports.[@l52] Foreigners must be expelled after sentence, with a ten-year re-entry ban for a lesser offence and a lifetime ban for a serious one.[@l52]

hrw, l52

Law 92-52 covers the listed narcotic plants at any stage of their growth and bans growing, holding, buying or handing them over. The, but its articles do not mention seeds; the annexed table was not available. Landholders[@l52] Landowners must destroy narcotic plants that come up on their own,land or pay 50 dinars per plant.[@l52] The seed and clone statuses here are therefore an inference, not an express rule.[@l52]

No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leaves no room for them: growing cannabis and supplying it to another person are both prohibited.[@l52] The "cannabis shops" that opened in 2020 were advocacy spaces, not licensed clubs.[@hrw]

There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Law 52 of 1992 setsA visitor can be prosecuted for use or possession, and a minimum of one foreigner convicted must be expelled after sentence, with a ten-year in prisonre-entry ban for a lesser offence and a finelifetime ban for possessing or using cannabis; since 2017 judges may go below that for first-time usersa serious one.[@l52]

hrw, tdl52

The interior ministry told a parliamentary committee in June 2026 that aboutrecorded 15,253 drug cases of all kinds were recorded in 2025, involving aboutand 27,338 people in 2025, nearly 89% of them aged 19 to 40. The; the figures are not broken down by drug.[@tnum26] In March 2026 it reported 14,300 trafficking cases and 20,289 trafficking arrests for 2025, alongside 181,998 judicial cases and 69,164 arrests in total.[@business26] The justice minister said in November 2025 that more than 10,000 prisoners were held for drug offences.[@td] National Guard figures put trafficker arrests at 4,982 in 2024, against 3,165 in 2023.[@lapresse24]

tnum26, business26, td, lapresse24

Figures reported by the government to the UN drugs office recordUNODC records 1,815 kg of cannabis resin seized in 2024, against 1,003 kg in 2023. The UN publishes them as kilogram equivalents, and countries count seizures differentlydoes not report a herbal-cannabis series for Tunisia.[@unodc_szr] Customs separately reported 760 kg of cannabis in 2025, so the figures arealongside 80 kg of cocaine and 13.07 million psychotropic tablets.[@lapresse25] The agency counts overlap and should not comparable across bordersbe added together.[@unodc_szr,lapresse25]

unodc_szr, lapresse25

Tunisia — Law 92-52 of 18 May 1992 on narcotics (consolidated, DCAF legal database) Tunisia — Law 2017-39 of 8 May 2017 amending Law 92-52 Tunisia — Penal Code, Article 53 (Lois.tn) Human Rights Watch — "All This for a Joint": Tunisia's repressive drug law and a roadmap for its reform (2016) Business News — Tunisie 2025: 181,998 affaires judiciaires et 20,289 arrestations pour trafic de drogue (7 March 2026) La Presse — 5,000 trafiquants arrêtés en 2024 en Tunisie (28 January 2025) La Presse — Saisie de 13 millions de comprimés, 80 kg de cocaïne et 760 kg de cannabis en 2025 (6 December 2025) Webdo — Loi 52: la Tunisie veut distinguer consommateurs et trafiquants (23 September 2026) Tunisie Numérique — Tunisia to launch saliva-based drug test for drivers (27 July 2025) UltraTunisia — Interview with Karim Chiair on regulating cannabis (18 February 2021) Loi n° 92-52 du 18 mai 1992 relative aux stupéfiants (UNODC SHERLOC copy) Human Rights Watch — report on Tunisia's Law 52 (PDF) Meshkal — After 30-year jail sentence for cannabis users, some demand decriminalization 3 unchanged

word zatla · lang Tunisian Arabic · say zaṭla · meaning cannabis, especially hashish; the everyday word · atlas zatla · sources zatla_word, word takrouri · lang Arabic · say takrūrī · meaning the older name used in protectorate decrees · atlas zatla · sources zatla_word

TND

label Use or possession for personal consumption · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · fine min 1000 · fine 3000 · note No quantity threshold; since 2017 a judge may reduce this to one day or a fine of up to 6,000 dinars, label Knowingly frequenting a drug den · treatment criminal · term Frequenting · prison min 6 months · prison 3 years · fine min 1000 · fine 5000

TND

label Growing for trafficking · treatment criminal · term Cultivation for trafficking · prison min 6 years · prison 10 years · fine min 5000 · fine 10000, label A few plants for personal use · treatment criminal · term Personal use · prison min 1 year · prison 5 years · fine min 1000 · fine 3000 · note Charged under the use-or-possession offence where there is no evidence of trafficking

TND

label Supply or trafficking · treatment criminal · term Trafficking · prison min 6 years · prison 10 years · fine min 5000 · fine 10000, label Import, export or smuggling with intent · treatment criminal · term Smuggling · prison min 10 years · prison 20 years · fine min 20000 · fine 100000, label Criminal association · treatment criminal · term Association · prison min 20 years · fine min 100000 · fine 1000000 · note Twenty years to life imprisonment, label Premises used for use or storage · treatment criminal · term Premises · prison min 10 years · prison 20 years · fine min 20000 · fine 100000

no

No legal source; only authorised medicine and research are excepted

There is no legal recreational market. Use or possession of any amount is a crime carrying one to five years and a 1,000–3,000 dinar fine, with no quantity threshold.[@l52] Since 2017 judges may apply mitigating circumstances to use and possession, down to one day or a fine, while trafficking remains excluded.[@l2017] A 40-article bill to rewrite Law 52 has been in committee since April 2025.[@webdo26] [Law 52 has governed since 1992.](/history/tunisia-law-52-1992/)

l52, l2017, webdo26

none

No hemp or CBD exemption and no THC threshold. Article 1 covers cannabis in any form and at any stage of growth, and Article 2 bans all cultivation except the medical and research exceptions.[@l52] No industrial-hemp licence was found.[@l52]

l52

unknown

No cannabis-specific driving offence or THC limit was confirmed. The road code's drug provision as consolidated covers alcohol, and in July 2025 the National Road Safety Observatory announced rapid saliva tests without a start date or published threshold.[@saliva25] Drug-driving enforcement therefore remains unverified.[@saliva25]

saliva25

Cannabis is *zatla* in everyday Tunisian Arabic and *takrouri* in the protectorate's decrees; both are described in the [zatla entry](/culture/language/zatla/).[@zatla_word] The state sold takrouri through its tobacco monopoly from 1890 until the 1953 ban, and the 1964 law ended the remaining medical exception.[@zatla_word] [Tunisia ended legal sales in 1953.](/history/tunisia-takrouri-ban-1953/)

zatla_word