Chad prohibits cannabis use and growing, with a research exception

Chad prohibited cannabis possession, use, growing and trade in a decree signed on 14 April 1966. The health minister could grant exceptions for scientific research, while cannabis seized for breaking the rules had to be destroyed.

A narcotics bureau preceded the decree

President François Tombalbaye signed the rules alongside the health and social affairs minister, Adoum Hel Bongo. Their decree brought cannabis into a wider system controlling poisonous substances in commerce, agriculture and medicine.

The government already had institutions for that work. The decree’s preamble cited the creation of a national narcotics bureau in May 1961 and a national pharmaceutical office in April 1963. Chad had also joined the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, accepting international controls on cannabis and other drugs.

Cannabis had a specific prohibition

The decree divided poisonous substances into three groups: toxic substances, narcotics and dangerous substances. Each group had separate lists for commercial, industrial or agricultural uses and for medicine. Ordinary narcotics activities required authorisation.

Cannabis received its own rule. The text prohibited importing, exporting, cultivating, harvesting, trading, using and possessing what it called Indian hemp. Its definition covered the flowering and fruiting tops of the female cannabis plant, described in the botanical language of the time as the Indian variety.

That wording connected the controls on the harvested drug with the activities needed to produce it. A grower, trader and person holding cannabis for use each appeared within the same prohibition.

Research needed the minister’s permission

The health and social affairs minister could allow exceptions for scientific research. Researchers therefore needed a specific government decision to undertake activities otherwise covered by the cannabis ban.

The exception sat within rules that distinguished the handling of substances for medicine from their other uses. For cannabis itself, the decree expressly identified scientific research as the purpose for which the minister could depart from the prohibition.

Seized cannabis was to be destroyed

Pharmacy inspectors, police commissioners and local administrative authorities shared responsibility for enforcement. Inspections covered pharmacies, medicine stores, wholesalers and other places handling controlled products. Inspectors could check authorisations and stock records, and reports of offences went to the prosecutor.

Any cannabis or preparations seized for violating the cannabis rule had to be destroyed. Affected people were given three months from publication to comply with the decree.

Later, Chad’s 2000 pharmacy law set out prison and fine alternatives for narcotics offences and compulsory treatment powers. These successive rules connect Chad’s early national drug administration with its later criminal controls.^[1][2]