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Mauritania

Africa

Severe prohibition

#164 of 196 worldwide
#46 of 54 in Africa

Recreational: IllegalMedical: None

Prison even for simple use, up to two years; a large share of prisoners are held for possession.

Score breakdown ▏world average

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Possession · 25%0/10

adds 0.0 of 25 points

Completely prohibited. The law imposes prison even for simple use or possession for personal use, with a maximum of two years and a fine.

Personal cultivation · 25%0/10

adds 0.0 of 25 points

Growers and producers can be sentenced to death under the drug law — unique in the Maghreb — though Mauritania has not carried out executions for decades.

Global Drug Policy Observatory — July 2017 archive (Mauritania drug law)

Punishment & enforcement · 20%1/10

adds 2.0 of 20 points

Users are jailed in large numbers: one account estimates that roughly a third of the prison population is held for drug offences, nine in ten of them for simple possession or use.