Presidential Promulgation Signals Firm Political Will
With the stroke of a presidential pen, Law n° 30-2025 on the fight against the production, detention, manufacture, transport, trafficking and illicit use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors entered into force in the Republic of Congo. The enactment follows unanimous approval by both chambers of Parliament and illustrates the Executive’s determination to address the mounting social and security risks posed by uncontrolled drug circulation. Often referred to by lawmakers as the “Moundélé-Ngollo Ehourossia Law”, the 86-article text inaugurates a comprehensive framework that reaches far beyond the repeal of scattered decrees, opening a new era in the country’s criminal and public-health policy.
Bridging Legal Gaps and Aligning with Global Norms
Until now, the Congolese legal order lacked a coherent arsenal capable of supporting the international conventions ratified in Vienna and New York over the past decades. Law 30-2025 expressly pursues five ambitions: closing the internal regulatory vacuum; harmonising domestic rules with multilateral obligations; deterring criminal networks; safeguarding public security; and preserving legitimate medical uses of controlled substances. By codifying procedures for cultivation licences, import permits and pharmaceutical prescriptions, the statute provides legal predictability to health professionals and traders while blocking loopholes long exploited by traffickers.
Key Penal Provisions: Deterrence through Severity
The most commented dimension of the new text remains its punitive strength. Article 37 introduces custodial sentences ranging from five to ten years, accompanied by fines of five to twenty million CFA francs, for any illicit act of cultivation, production or transformation involving high-risk drugs. Article 67 empowers judicial police officers and customs agents to order medical screenings whenever serious indications suggest that a courier is concealing narcotics within the body; refusal attracts up to five years’ imprisonment. Article 68 further authorises magistrates to place computer systems under surveillance for a limited time when credible evidence links a suspect to offences enumerated in articles 37 to 55. Together, these provisions weave a net designed to raise the cost of trafficking and modernise investigative techniques.
Public Security Imperative: Disrupting Youth Delinquency
The timing of the legislation is no coincidence. Urban centres such as Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire have witnessed an alarming surge in juvenile gangs, colloquially dubbed “bébés noirs”, whose violent escapades are often fuelled by diverted analgesics and synthetic opioids. During a constituency briefing in Ongogni, deputy Yves Fortuné Moundélé-Ngollo Ehourossia reminded his voters that illicit substances nurture grand banditry, money laundering, corruption and human exploitation. By stiffening penalties and enhancing interdiction powers, the law seeks to choke supply chains that feed adolescent delinquency, thereby reinforcing the government’s broader agenda for social stability.
Medical Control without Hindering Access
A cornerstone of the reform lies in balancing repression with therapeutic necessity. Article 6 maintains a general prohibition on the wholesale and retail distribution, transit and export of drugs listed in Schedule I, save for transactions expressly authorised by the competent ministry. At the same time, the text encourages responsible prescription practices, mindful that molecules such as tramadol remain indispensable for pain management. Health-sector stakeholders expect forthcoming implementing decrees to clarify inventory reporting, storage standards and training requirements, ensuring that hospitals continue to treat patients without inadvertently fuelling the street market.
À retenir
Law 30-2025 installs an integrated system covering licit cultivation to final dispensation, backed by a graduated scale of sanctions. It reinforces police investigative capacities, upholds the presumption of innocence through judicial oversight and embeds Congo-Brazzaville more deeply within the global architecture against narcotics.
Le point juridique/éco
From a legal standpoint, the statute elevates drug offences to a special corpus subject to heightened procedural tools while preserving constitutional guarantees. Economically, it may raise compliance costs for pharmaceutical importers, yet it also promises to curtail the informal market that drains public revenue and distorts competition. Investors seeking to operate in the licit supply chain now benefit from clearer rules, a factor likely to enhance the country’s attractiveness in the regional health-care economy.