Mauritius allows medical cannabis and diverts users to treatment

In November 2022 Mauritius amended its Dangerous Drugs Act in two directions at once. One set of changes allowed cannabis-based medicine, under tight control, in public hospitals. The other created a way to send people caught with drugs for their own use to treatment in place of a courtroom. Neither took effect at once: in January 2023 the law firm ENS noted that no proclamation date had yet been set.

Medicine, patient by patient

Subject	Rule
Product	capsule, oil-based solution or mouth spray, with no more than 30 mg of THC per ml and no more than 60 ml in total
Conditions	spasticity in multiple sclerosis, severe refractory epilepsy, intractable nausea from chemotherapy, severe intractable pain, where conventional treatment has failed
Approval	a Medicinal Cannabis Therapeutic Committee in each regional hospital decides on each patient; it may also approve other conditions on the evidence
Prescriber	a specialist registered with the Medical Council, trained and authorised by the health ministry
Dispensing	at a regional hospital, by an authorised pharmacist, once per prescription; treatment renewable for up to three months at a time
Import	only on the ministry’s behalf, by a person the minister authorises, under police supervision

The amendments say nothing about cultivation. A traveller may bring medicinal cannabis into the country with a prescription and the ministry’s authorisation.

The panel

The same Act created the Drug Users Administrative Panel, the DUAP. When a person is suspected of a drug offence for personal consumption, the Director of Public Prosecutions may recommend that they not be prosecuted and be referred to the panel. The panel directs them to rehabilitation, which can mean education, counselling, treatment, aftercare or social reintegration at a public health institution, and it follows their progress. In 2023 the panel was still being set up.

The criticism

L’Express collected the objections in July 2026. The law sets no quantity that separates a user from a suspected trafficker, so each case depends on the judgment of the authorities. Ashvin Gungaram of the NGO AILES called the panel “a model of decriminalisation” that lacks the usual safeguards: in his words, the investigator and the prosecutor’s office decide who benefits. The lawyer Rama Valayden said many users do not know the alternative exists and that the police will not tell them. The organisation Collectif Urgence Toxida had argued earlier that people who use drugs do not always need treatment and that their choice should be respected.

Why the index moved

Enforcement rises from 1 to 2: the law now contains a route away from prosecution for personal use, though it depends on a prosecutor’s recommendation and no amount is guaranteed. Access rises from 0 to 1, for cannabis medicine approved one patient at a time. Possession and consumption stay at 1, since both remain offences, and cultivation and sharing stay at 0. The total moves from 6 to 9.^[1][2][3]