Gabon separates drug use from possession and supply in its Penal Code

Gabon’s amended drug offences in August 1993 treated using drugs differently from possessing, cultivating or supplying them. Illicit use carried two months to a year and a fine, while the general offence carried two to ten years and a much larger fine.

Drug offences sat within the national Penal Code

The amendments formed part of Gabon’s Penal Code, originally enacted in 1963. They covered substances and plants classified as narcotics through regulations, with offences addressing their production, movement, possession and use.

The law separated several kinds of conduct. Someone using a drug, someone supplying it directly to another user and someone importing or producing it faced different punishments.

That structure mattered because holding drugs could expose a person to a longer prison range than the separate use offence.

Possession and direct supply had different ranges

Unauthorised cultivation, possession, offering, transfer, sale, acquisition or purchase carried two to ten years and a fine of 250,000–50 million CFA francs. Illicit import, production, manufacture or export carried a separate criminal prison sentence and a fine of 500,000–100 million francs.

Giving, offering or supplying drugs directly for another person’s consumption had a one-to-five-year range and a fine of 250,000–50 million francs. Supplying minors or supplying in educational or administrative premises raised that range to two to ten years.

Facilitating another person’s drug use, including doing so without payment, also had its own two-to-five-year range and a fine.

Treatment could replace punishment for use

The fine attached to illicit use ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 francs. If a person needed medical treatment, a court could order medical supervision or detoxification in a public or private centre and withhold the use penalty.

Evading that order carried six months to two years and a fine of 250,000–50 million francs. Treatment therefore created a possible alternative to the use punishment, with criminal consequences for evasion.

The code also allowed suspended sentences for personal drug use. Other consequences could include restrictions on civic rights, residence, travel or professional activity, alongside confiscation and destruction of seized drugs.

The replacement code kept the distinction

The 2019 Penal Code rewrote the penalties while keeping separate use and possession offences. Illicit use carried up to a year and a fine of up to 1.5 million francs; the general possession offence set ten years and a fine of up to 100 million.

The 2020 replacement retained those newer rules. The difference between use, possession and supply remained central to the written drug penalties in Gabon.^[1][2]