Extend Yemen history through Aden controls and verified Arabic law

1993-03-30

Yemen's narcotics law provides sets five years for thepersonal use and death penaltyfor drug supply

Law 3 of 1993 on illicit trafficking in and use of narcotics punishes import, export and productionYemen’s drug law set five years for trade with death, and tradingholding or giving drugs to a user with death or 25 years. Holding or growing cannabis for personal use carries five years, with residential treatment possibleavailable instead for a person proved dependent.[@1,2] Unpaid supply could bring death or twenty-five years, while importing or manufacturing narcotics for trade carried death.[@1] Cannabis plants were expressly listed among prohibited crops; stalk fibres and seeds treated to prevent germination were exempt parts.[@1,2] The law took effect on issuance on 30 March 1993.[@1,2]

Yemen — Law 3 of 1993, Arabic text published by the Public Prosecution Yemen — Law 3 of 1993 with schedules, Arabic text held by the House of Representatives Harm Reduction International — The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2010 Mohamah.net — Texts of Law No. 3 of 1993 (Yemen, Arabic)

sentencing, treatment, home-growing

yemen-aden-growing-ordinance-1961, yemen-sanaa-drug-law-amendment-draft-2025

Personal possessionHolding or growing cannabis for personal use carries five years in prison under Law 3 of 1993, and trading or supplying drugs carrieswith residential treatment possible instead. Unpaid supply can bring death or 25twenty-five years. Qat, by contrast, is legal.

Article 38 of Law 3 of 1993 punishessets five years in prison for holding, or buying drugs, or growing listed plants, for personal use with five years in prison. TheA court maycan order an addict into a clinicresidential treatment instead for a person proved dependent, with a stay of at least six months instead, and no case is brought against a. A user who comes forward forvoluntarily enters treatment on their own. The copy read does not include the schedulesis protected from prosecution under that provision, so it does not show which plants are in Table 5with release decided by a committee after a stay of six months to two years.[@law93, l3]

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ArticleArticles 28 bans–29 prohibit growing or dealing in the Table 5 plants in schedule 5, which expressly includes male and female cannabis. Growing them for tradepersonal use carries death or 25five years (Article 34)under article 38; growing for personal usetrade carries death or twenty-five years (under article 34. Article 38)30 allows government departments and scientific institutes to obtain growing licences for research.[@law93, l3]

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The statute sets five years for personal Personal-use holdings and allowsgrowing carry five years, with residential treatment possible instead (Article 38); the court may reducefor a sentence only to the next lower penalty (Article 37)person proved dependent. How it is applied is not shown byUnpaid supply carries death or twenty-five years; importing or manufacturing narcotics for trade carries death.[@law93] The internationally recognised government’s reported drug-use cases for 2025 are recorded below; those figures cover the textgovernorates it controls.[@ym26]

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Article 35 punishes givingsets death or twenty-five years for supplying drugs to a userfor consumption without payment, or makingfacilitating their use easier, withoutside the authorised circumstances. Article 34 also applies death or 25twenty-five years in prison, the same asto trading (Article 34)and running or preparing premises for drug use.[@law93]

Article 38 punishessets five years for holding or buying drugs, or growing listed plants, for consumption or personal use or consumption, with five yearsa residential-treatment alternative for a person proved dependent. Article 40 sets up to one year for knowingly being present where drug consumption is taking place in prisonpremises prepared for it, with treatment possible insteadspecified family exceptions.[@law93] Qat, a mild stimulant leaf chewed daily by most Yemeni men, is legal and central to social life.[@albab]

None for personal useArticle 2 prohibits unauthorised possession and drug transactions. Imports forArticles 3–4 restrict imports to authorised medical and scientific use need prior written permission from the health ministry (Article 3)channels, while article 14 requires a medical prescription for pharmacy dispensing. There is no recreational cannabis supply route in these provisions.[@law93]

ArticlesArticle 33 to 35 of Law 3 of 1993 punishprescribes death for importing, producing or trading in drugs, and supplying a user, withmanufacturing narcotics for trade. Articles 34–35 prescribe death or 25twenty-five years in prisonfor trading, growing for trade, unpaid supply and preparing premises for drug use.[@law93]

The retained sources do not establish collateral consequences beyondArticles 36 and 43 provide for confiscation of criminal proceeds, drugs and equipment or vehicles used in offences. A conviction for an offence also bars a person from obtaining the penaltiesdrug-trading licence described abovein article 8.[@law93]

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Law 3 of 1993 bansArticles 28–29 prohibit growing the listed plants (Article 28) and, dealing in Article 29, importing, owning, holding, buying or selling them at anyevery stage of growth, as well asincluding their seeds; plant parts named in a separate schedule are exempt. The Minister of Agriculture may license onlySchedule 5 expressly names male and female cannabis. Schedule 6 exempts stalk fibres and cannabis seeds treated so they cannot germinate. Article 30 limits research-growing licences to government departments and scientific institutes to grow them or import seeds.[@law93, l3]

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No cannabis clubs are known, and the law leavesThe statute provides no room for them: growingrecreational cannabis and-club route. Growing for personal use carries five years; supplying it to another person are both prohibited,drugs without payment and the law providespreparing premises for theconsumption carry death penalty for the most serious drug offencesor twenty-five years.[@law93]

There is no legal recreational supplyUnauthorised possession for anyonepersonal use carries five years, sowith residential treatment possible for a visitor has no lawful way to buy cannabisperson proved dependent. Unpaid supply can bring death or twenty-five years, and imports for trade can bring death. The sources behind this profile describestatute provides no separate rule for visitorsrecreational supply route.[@law93]

Yemen — Law 3 of 1993 with schedules, Arabic text held by the House of Representatives Yemen — Law 3 of 1993, Arabic text published by the Public Prosecution قانون رقم (3) لسنة 1993م بشأن مكافحة الاتجار والاستعمال غير المشروعين للمخدرات والمؤثرات العقلية (University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, PDF) Mohamah.net — Texts of Law No. 3 of 1993 on combating illicit trafficking in and use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (Yemen, Arabic) 2 unchanged

Yemen'’s Law No. 3 of 1993 joined ordinarydrug law set five years in prison for possessing or growing cannabis for personal -use imprisonment. Giving drugs to capital punishmentanother person for some supply offences. Cannabis is covered through the law's controlled plants and substances consumption without payment could bring death or twenty-five years, although the reproduced text's searchable body does not display the annexed schedules themselves while a person proved dependent could be sent to residential treatment instead of prison.[@1,2] ## A national drugThe law named cannabis directly The law concerns illicit trafficking and use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. It was issued in Sana'atook effect on issuance on 30 March 1993 and took effect from its date of issue. Articles 28 Its schedules covered cannabis as a drug and 29 prohibit cultivating specified scheduledexpressly named male and female cannabis among the plants whose cultivation was prohibited.[@1,2] An earlier [Aden ordinance](/history/yemen-aden-growing-ordinance-1961/) had already prohibited cannabis growing within that colony and handling them or their seedscontrolled imports and exports through acts including importlicences. The 1993 text set out personal-use, export, transport, possession, purchase, saletrading and exchangetreatment rules under Yemen’s national drug law.[@1,3] The agriculture minister may license government bodiesplant provisions reached every stage of growth and included seeds. Stalk fibres and seeds treated so they could not germinate were exempt parts. Government departments and scientific institutes to cultivate a prohibited plantcould obtain growing licences for research, subject to imposed conditions.[@1,2] ## Five yearsKeeping cannabis for yourself carried five years The personal-use Article 38 applies where a person possesses provision covered holding, buysbuying, producesproducing or manufactures a narcotic drug—or grows, possesses or buys a scheduled plant—preparing drugs and growing listed plants for consumption or personal use without lawful, outside the authorised medical or statutory authorisationlegal circumstances. The punishment isIt prescribed a five years in-year prison sentence.[@1,2] The court may order an addictedlaw also punished knowingly being present where drugs were being consumed in premises prepared for that purpose, with up to one year in prison. It exempted specified close relatives of the person intowho prepared the premises.[@1] ## Treatment involved living in a centre A court could replace the personal-use sentence with commitment to a treatment institution insteadcentre when dependence was established. SomeoneA committee decided when the person could leave, and the stay had to last at least six months.[@1,2] The law also offered protection from prosecution to a user who voluntarily presents forentered treatment is not prosecuted, but. That person likewise remained until the law specifies institutional stays committee decided on release, within a period of at least six months and no more thanto two years for that route.[@1,2] ## Capital offences Article 33 imposes deathUnpaid supply faced the harshest penalties Supplying drugs for unauthorised export or import with intent to trafficconsumption without payment, and for producing, extracting, separating or manufacturing narcotics with that intent. Article 34 permits facilitating consumption outside authorised circumstances, carried death or twenty-five years for conduct including possession, sale, delivery and transport with intent. The same alternatives applied to traffic,trading and for operatingpreparing or running premises for drug consumption. Article 35 applies the same Importing or manufacturing narcotics for trade carried death.[@1] In December 2025, [officials in Sana’a reviewed proposed amendments](/history/yemen-orsanaa-twentydrug-fivelaw-year range to giving narcotics for consumption without payment or facilitating their useamendment-draft-2025/). Harm Reduction International independently summarised those provisions and recorded that at least one drug trafficker was executed in 2008. It also The Justice Ministry reported death sentences from that periodcalls for deterrent penalties and clearer procedures, while cautioning through its evidence that practice cannot be inferred merely fromwith further steps needed to submit the statutory maximumdraft. The law remains the basis of the severe framework described on the [Yemen profile](/country/ye/). In sets out the indexpersonal-use, 1993 tightens enforcement from an already prohibited baseline:growing and supply provisions of the recorded score falls from 3 to 1 because death became an available drug penalty1993 law. The other five segment scores remain unchanged. [@4]

Yemen — Law 3 of 1993, Arabic text published by the Public Prosecution Yemen — Law 3 of 1993 with schedules, Arabic text held by the House of Representatives Aden — Dangerous Drugs Ordinance 13 of 1960, original gazette supplied to the UN Sana’a Justice and Human Rights Ministry — review of a draft amendment to the 1993 drug law, 17 December 2025 Harm Reduction International — The Death Penalty for Drug Offences, Global Overview 2010 Yemen — reproduced text of Law No. 3 of 1993 (Mohamah.net, Arabic)