Zimbabwe’s official classification of crystal methamphetamine, better known as Mutoriro, as a dangerous drug, following Statutory Instrument 167 of 2024, may spark a flurry of legal challenges.
The amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act retroactively legitimizes prosecutions, but raises questions about past convictions.
For the past three years, lawyers have been contesting the classification of crystal meth, arguing it was not listed as a scheduled drug under Zimbabwe’s Dangerous Drugs Act.
However, this changed on October 11, 2024, when the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, in collaboration with Minister of Health and Child Care Douglas Mombeshora, published Statutory Instrument 167 in the government gazette.
This amendment officially lists methamphetamine, along with other substances, as a scheduled drug.
As a result, the state can now charge individuals found possessing or dealing methamphetamine under the Dangerous Drugs Act.
Prior to this amendment, several individuals were convicted, jailed, or are serving sentences for violating the Act, despite lawyers arguing that crystal meth wasn’t officially classified as a scheduled drug.
This development may attract legal challenges, particularly from those already convicted or serving sentences.
Legal experts said this is likely to open floodgates of legal challenges as the state has been charging people under a non-existent law.
Harare lawyer Admire Rubaya took issue when his clients were arrested.
He has been locked in a fierce battle with the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe over the issue after the prosecutors charged his clients for dealing in dangerous drugs while referring to methamphetamine.
While representing his clients Prince Samuriwo and Humphrey Banda in October 2023, Rubaya argued that the charge was defective as the Act does not cater for the said drug.
“The State alleges that crystal methamphetamine that the accused was allegedly found in possession of is a dangerous drug yet there is no such drug listed in the relevant schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act.
“A drug does not become a dangerous drug simply because the general populace, the State and politicians want it to be treated as a dangerous drug whose alleged possession is punishable in terms of the criminal law.
“A drug can only be dangerous in terms of the law if it is one which fits into the definition of a dangerous drug in terms of the law,” Rubaya argued.
Rubaya also made similar arguments on July 2, 2021, when he represented one Anisha Brenda Gumbo, who was charged for allegedly dealing in dangerous drugs, having been found in possession of 89 sachets of crystal meth.
He argued that crimes are created through statute and not by the courts simply because there was a need to address the abuse of crystal meth by the younger generation of the Zimbabwean population.
“The responsible Minister ought to specify crystal meth as a dangerous drug in terms of section 14 of the Dangerous Drugs Act failing which the law as it currently stands does not create a crime from the alleged possession of crystal meth or any dealings in crystal meth,” he argued.
Meanwhile, the biggest question is likely to be; what will happen to the several people incarcerated over the defective law as it has been shown that before October 11, crystal meth was not listed as a dangerous drug?
