Ghana Drug Law
The Narcotics Control Commission (Amendment) Act 2023 is Ghana's most significant drug policy reform in decades. The Act amends the earlier Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 1019) to remove criminal sanctions for possession of cannabis for personal use. This makes Ghana the first country in West Africa and only the second in sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa's Constitutional Court ruling in 2018) to decriminalise cannabis at the national level.
Key provisions of the 2023 Act include: removal of criminal prosecution for personal possession; referral of individuals found with personal-use quantities to treatment and counselling rather than court; and continuation of full criminal penalties for commercial sale, trafficking, and cultivation. The legislation does not define a specific gram threshold for "personal use" in the primary text — this is left to regulatory guidance from the Narcotics Control Commission (NCC).
Industrial hemp cultivation is under separate regulatory consideration in Ghana, with interest from agricultural investors. The government has expressed openness to developing a regulated hemp industry, but no licensing framework for commercial cannabis or dispensary retail existed as of 2026.
CBD products are in a regulatory grey zone similar to Nigeria. Products imported with THC content below 0.2% and marketed as wellness supplements are generally tolerated, but NAFDAC-equivalent oversight from Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is not yet specifically applied to CBD retail.
Ghana Cannabis Laws — Full legal detail on Ghana's 2023 decriminalisation
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