Gabon rewrites penalties for drug use, possession and direct supply

Gabon’s new Penal Code, signed on 5 July 2019, retained a shorter punishment for illicit drug use while rewriting possession and supply penalties. Use carried up to a year and a fine; the general possession offence set ten years and a fine of up to 100 million CFA francs.

Earlier law separated use from possession

The drug provisions amended in 1993 had punished illicit use with two months to a year and a fine of 100,000–500,000 francs. Unauthorised possession, cultivation and supply carried two to ten years and a fine of 250,000–50 million.

The replacement code named cannabis and its derivatives among the drugs covered. It maintained different offences for use, general possession, direct supply to a user and organising the drug trade.

The prison and fine provisions changed together

The new use offence set a maximum of one year and a fine of up to 1.5 million francs. A court could order medical supervision or detoxification and withhold that punishment where the user needed treatment.

Evading the treatment order carried up to three years and a fine of up to two million francs. The earlier evasion offence had carried six months to two years and a much higher possible fine.

Giving or offering drugs directly for another person’s consumption carried up to five years and a fine of up to ten million. General transport, possession, offering, transfer or acquisition was subject to the ten-year prison term and a fine of up to 100 million, outside the separately specified trafficking offences.

Organising production or trafficking had longer terms

Directing a group involved in drug transport, possession, supply or trade carried thirty years and a fine equal to five times the value seized. Organising illicit production or manufacture carried twenty years and a fine of up to fifty million.

Organising import or export also carried twenty years, with a fine tied to the value seized. Organised-group cases brought higher penalties. These rules made the person’s role in the operation significant alongside the conduct involved.

The next code retained the drug rules

The 2020 replacement code kept these core drug provisions and renumbered them. It also retained confiscation and destruction of seized drugs.

In May 2026, Libreville prosecutors destroyed seized cannabis and other drugs in an operation attended by Justice Minister Augustin Emane. The ministry said the aim was to prevent seized drugs returning to sale, linking the destruction requirement to enforcement in Gabon.^[1][2][3][4]