Tanzania splits cannabis trafficking penalties at fifty kilograms

Tanzania introduced a thirty-year prison term for cannabis trafficking involving fifty kilograms or less, while keeping quantities above that in the life-sentence tier.^[1] The same amendment broadened the trafficking definition and rewrote the conditions under which a person convicted of drug use could receive treatment.^[1]

The earlier law already carried life for trafficking

The 2015 drug law had set life imprisonment for trafficking and at least thirty years for unauthorised growing of prohibited plants.^[2] It also contained a separate provision for small amounts intended for personal consumption, with a fine, three years in prison, or both for drugs outside its specially listed group.^[2]

The government published an amendment bill in October 2017.^[1][3] President John Magufuli assented to the resulting law in November, and it was published on 1 December.^[1][3]

Fifty kilograms divided two trafficking penalties

Cannabis and khat received a specific weight boundary.^[1] Trafficking more than fifty kilograms remained within the life-imprisonment rule.^[1] At fifty kilograms or below, the new trafficking offence carried thirty years.^[1]

Cases in that lower-quantity tier were assigned to subordinate courts, below the High Court.^[1] The amendment added possession and production to the definition of trafficking, which already included giving and storing drugs alongside buying, selling, transporting and distributing them.^[1]

That broader wording made how a person held or supplied drugs important to the offence as well as the weight involved.^[1][2] The separate personal-consumption provision remained in the law, with the accused responsible for proving that small quantities were intended for their own use.^[1][2]

Treatment required consent and a medical assessment

For a person convicted of a drug-use offence, a court could direct treatment instead of immediately imposing prison or another sentence.^[1] It had to be satisfied that the person was dependent, that the dependence had motivated the offence, that treatment was possible within a reasonable time, and that this course served the interests of justice.^[1]

The person had to consent.^[1] A written medical report had to address the dependence, available treatment and prospects of success.^[1] Violence, weapons, organised crime, quantities beyond personal use and a role in directing others were among the circumstances that ruled against this route.^[1]

The amendment combined different changes

The law separated lower-weight trafficking from the life-sentence tier while expressly bringing more conduct within trafficking.^[1] It also made medical evidence central to the treatment decision.^[1]

The 2021 amendment later moved the trafficking boundary to one hundred kilograms and made thirty years the minimum in the lower tier.^[4] Together, these changes shaped Tanzania’s cannabis controls through successive definitions, penalties and exceptions.^[1][4]