Burundi sets three to five years for drug use

From 1 May 1981, Burundi’s rewritten criminal law set three to five years in prison for illicit drug use. Judges could instead impose a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 francs, or combine the two punishments. Officials presented the drug rules as a way to protect public health amid concern about trafficking.

A government rewrites inherited criminal law

President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza signed the new code after commissions of judges and justice officials had prepared it. The government’s explanation said the criminal law inherited from colonial rule needed to match the country’s changed circumstances. It also wanted scattered offences brought together in one code.

Cannabis appeared in that older collection of laws. The code’s repeal list specifically named a 1903 ordinance on smoking hemp. The replacement put narcotics under a common set of offences, with the health minister responsible for identifying controlled substances and authorising exceptions.

Using drugs had its own penalty

The law prohibited growing, selling, transporting, holding and consuming narcotics outside the health ministry’s conditions. Its general punishment was three months to five years in prison and a fine up to 250,000 francs, with either punishment available alone.

Illicit use had a separate clause with a higher prison minimum: three years. Someone prosecuted for using a controlled drug therefore faced a different sentencing range from the general regulatory offence, although the option of a fine alone remained.

For illicit production, import, manufacture or export, the general penalties could be doubled. The law also covered operations whose different steps took place in different countries.

Helping someone use drugs was punishable too

Providing a place or otherwise helping another person use drugs carried three to five years, a fine, or both. Charging money was unnecessary: free assistance was covered as well. Where the use or supply involved someone under 18, the prison term could reach ten years.

Courts also had to confiscate drugs, plants and equipment used for consumption, manufacture or transport. Crops were to be destroyed, with the offender paying when the authorities carried out the destruction.

The next rewrite changed both ends of the scale

The 2009 revision lowered the prison minimum for drug use to one year, while setting ten to fifteen years for illicit production and adding supervision for consumption offences. Those later changes help explain how Burundi’s present rules developed from the penalties assembled in 1981.^[1][2]