Rwanda’s criminal code allows a fine alone for drug use

Rwanda’s criminal code signed on 18 August 1977 set out a choice of prison, a fine, or both for illicit drug use. The prison range was three months to five years, and the fine ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 francs. Growing, selling, transporting and holding controlled drugs were also prohibited outside health-ministry exceptions.

A new code gathered older offences together

President Juvénal Habyarimana issued the code on the justice minister’s proposal after government consideration. Its repeal list included the 1940 criminal code and a 1903 ordinance dealing specifically with smoking hemp.

The replacement brought narcotics offences into a common section. The health minister was to identify controlled substances and determine exceptions to the ban. This linked the criminal rules to decisions made by the health authorities about which substances could be used and under what conditions.

A judge could choose a fine alone

Illicit drug use had its own penalty clause. Alongside the prison range and fine, it expressly allowed either punishment alone. A conviction for using a controlled drug therefore did not necessarily require imprisonment under that clause.

The general offence of breaking drug regulations carried three months to five years and a fine up to 250,000 francs, again with either punishment available alone. For illicit production, import, manufacture or export, those penalties could be doubled. The code also covered operations whose different steps took place in different countries.

Free help and smoking equipment were covered

Providing premises or otherwise helping someone use drugs carried three to five years, a fine of 100,000 to 500,000 francs, or both. The offence covered paid and unpaid assistance. Where the use or supply involved someone under 18, the prison term could reach ten years.

Courts were also directed to confiscate controlled drugs, plants and equipment used for consumption, manufacture or transport. Crops were to be destroyed, at the offender’s expense when the authorities performed the work.

The next code changed the sentencing choice

The 2012 replacement specified one to three years in prison and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 francs for illicit use. Its drug-use clause combined the two punishments, while narrowing the prison range.

Later revisions again changed the available sentences. That sequence matters for Rwanda: the option written into one period’s drug law cannot simply be carried forward to the next.^[1][2]