Jordan restores prosecution for first-time drug use

Jordan’s replacement drug law restored prosecution for first-time drug use when it took effect on 15 August 2016. A person faced one to three years in prison and a fine, while a court could choose inpatient or outpatient treatment instead.

First-time users had previously been sent directly to treatment

The 2013 amendment had required people caught using drugs for the first time to be referred for treatment within twenty-four hours. It protected them from prosecution and a judicial precedent, while recording their names in a special administrative register.

That arrangement made treatment the required response to a first detected use offence. The 2016 replacement put the choice within a criminal case: the court could impose the ordinary punishment or order treatment.

In July 2016, the government’s legislation bureau head, Nofan al-Ajarmeh, told 7iber that officials had reviewed the three-year experiment and judged it ineffective. Rights lawyer Hala Ahed criticised the quick reversal and argued that policy should focus on treating addiction.

Personal use carried prison and a fine

The new law grouped taking drugs with importing, producing, manufacturing, possessing or growing them for personal use. Its personal-use penalty was one to three years in prison together with a fine of 1,000 to 3,000 Jordanian dinars.

Own-use growing therefore had its own place in the personal-use offence. Cultivation for trafficking fell under a separate offence carrying much longer punishment.

For a third personal-use offence, the original 2016 text restricted mitigation: a court could reduce the punishment only as far as four months and a 500-dinar fine.

Treatment and record protections remained available

A court could replace punishment with admission to a specialist treatment centre or treatment through an outpatient clinic. The law also protected the identity and information of people receiving treatment, with a criminal penalty for disclosure.

A first personal-use offence created no criminal precedent or security record. This record protection sat alongside the possibility of prosecution and punishment.

Another route remained available before detection. A person who sought treatment voluntarily, directly or through family, before being caught was protected from prosecution. Applications could be made through the treatment system, the Anti-Narcotics Department or a security centre.

Later amendments changed the penalty structure

The 2021 amendment replaced the single personal-use sentence range with four bands tied to the substance’s controlled-drug schedule. It also broadened the acts covered by first-offence record protection.

That later structure matters when reading the 2016 penalties today. Under the regulator’s current schedules, cannabis plant material and resin sit in different tables and attract different personal-use punishments. Jordan’s profile explains those current ranges alongside the continuing treatment and first-offence protections.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}