Angola requires licences for controlled-drug growers and suppliers

Angola put controlled-drug cultivation, manufacture and supply under detailed licensing rules on 4 November 1999. The rules covered cannabis through its place in the controlled list and required authorisation for professional activities, secure handling and special prescriptions for treatment supplies.

Lawful supplies were part of drug control

The law accompanied the replacement criminal drug law, which set prison sentences for unauthorised dealing and personal use. Parliament argued that punishment alone could not control drugs whose legitimate trade was poorly regulated: substances used in medicine, industry and research could be diverted into illicit markets.

The national medicines directorate became the licensing authority for the main controlled-drug schedules. It was to give priority to medical, veterinary, scientific and teaching needs within the country’s requirements. Cannabis, its resin and its oil appeared in the first schedule.

Growers had to describe their land and harvest

An applicant seeking to cultivate a controlled plant for medicine, veterinary use or research had to identify the growers, the location and area of the land, and the species and quantity to be planted. The application also had to state the expected harvest, its intended use and destination, and where it would be stored securely.

Licences specified their own conditions and duration. They could not be transferred, and a business needed separate authorisation for each branch or storage site. The medicines directorate had inspection powers and had to inform police and customs about licences and changes to them.

Trade required more than a business licence

Manufacture, wholesale distribution and cross-border movements had their own controls. A wholesaler needed a responsible pharmacist and ordinarily supplied other authorised bodies. Imports and exports required permission for each transaction; an export application also needed the destination country’s import authorisation.

These controls tied the supply chain together. Permission to manufacture included acquiring and storing raw materials and selling the resulting products to authorised entities. Ordinary personal cultivation and possession remained punishable under the companion criminal law.

Prescriptions expired after ten days

For treatment supplies in the first two schedules, the law required a medical or veterinary prescription with patient, prescriber, medicine and dosage details. Pharmacists had to check identity and refuse a special prescription already filled or more than ten days old.

The prescription rules required retained copies and reports to health authorities. Together with licences for growers and suppliers, they described how Angola intended to supervise controlled drugs from production through dispensing.^[1][2]