Kiribati fines a sailor whose prescribed marijuana was a prohibited import

Joao Afonso’s medical prescription did not protect him from a cannabis prosecution in Kiribati. On 7 June 2016, the High Court fined the Portuguese sailor A$1,600 on a marijuana charge, with three months in prison if he failed to pay. The sentence records only 0.03 grams found on his yacht.^[1]

The court accepted his medical explanation

Chief Justice John Muria accepted that Afonso’s marijuana was part of prescribed treatment. He nevertheless treated it as a prohibited import under Kiribati law. Afonso pleaded guilty on the drug count, and the judge credited both that plea and his cooperation with the authorities.^[1]

The distinction mattered for a traveller arriving with prescribed treatment. The inherited drug ordinance prohibited importing Indian hemp, with a broad definition covering cannabis plants and their parts. It placed extracts and tinctures in a separate controlled-drug schedule.^[2]

Prescription preparations had a separate legal route

The 1980 regulations expressly authorised registered pharmacists to prepare extracts or tinctures of cannabis at their shops. They also recognised possession following lawful prescription supply and imposed dispensing, storage and record-keeping requirements.^[3]

Those provisions concerned controlled preparations and authorised supply. In Afonso’s case, the court accepted the treatment explanation while still finding his imported marijuana unlawful. His prescription became relevant to the choice of sentence.^[1][3]

His health weighed against imprisonment and yacht forfeiture

The prosecution asked for a fine and imprisonment. Muria considered the doctor’s evidence about Afonso’s health and the burden that custody would place on the medical authorities on Kiritimati Island. He concluded that imprisonment would serve no punitive purpose in the circumstances.^[1]

The judge also declined to confiscate the yacht, pointing to the small amount and its medicinal purpose. The A$1,600 drug fine was accompanied by a separate A$400 fine on an immigration matter, with an additional default prison term. Afonso therefore received financial penalties while keeping his vessel.^[1]

That outcome differed from the Morlier case the previous year. There, cultivation, prohibited import and immigration offences brought concurrent prison terms, A$4,400 in fines and forfeiture of a yacht and equipment.^[4][5]

The case reappeared in a later possession trial

In 2018, the court referred to testing in Afonso’s case when considering a fisheries officer’s cannabis possession. The officer had kept and used cannabis he said he had found; his knowledge and admissions became central to the conviction.^[6]

Together, the cases show the questions courts examined: the activity charged, the evidence identifying cannabis, knowledge, personal circumstances and the consequences for property. The Kiribati profile explains those possession and import controls alongside the separate rules for prescription preparations.^[1][2][3][6]