Score Madagascar, India and South Africa from nationwide laws.

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# National scores follow nationwide laws
+
+23 October 2026. Issues 8, 9 and 10. Read `docs/DATA-MAINTENANCE.md` (the score
+timeline, and the note that Act XII of 1896 had to be read before it was
+scored) and `docs/WRITING.md`.
+
+## What was wrong
+
+Madagascar's only scored event was the 1787 Merina smoking ban in central
+Imerina. That one step carried today's possession, cultivation, enforcement,
+sharing, consumption and access scores. The colony-wide 1915 decree, the 1958
+cultivation and possession penalties, and the 1960 sentence increase were
+unscored for that reason.
+
+India's 1793 Bengal retail licence was the first scored event for the whole
+modern country, a drop from 100 to 96. Act XII of 1896 then dropped the
+national score from 96 to 40. A Burma reprint of that act, already read for
+the Myanmar gap note, extends it to the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the
+Punjab, the Central Provinces, Burma, Coorg, and Ajmere and Merwara. Bengal
+stayed under its own excise law. It is not a law for all of British India.
+
+South Africa's first scored event was the 1903 Orange River Colony ordinance,
+so the national score left 100 in 1903. The first nationwide prohibition is
+the 1922 Customs and Excise amendment.
+
+## What the scores do now
+
+Current profile scores are unchanged.
+
+Madagascar: 1915 is the first national step, from 100 to 55. Preparing,
+selling and consuming smoking cannabis became offences, with up to a year in
+prison or a fine. Possession and cultivation were not yet named offences, so
+those segments stay at 10. In 1958 they become crimes with eleven days to one
+month or a fine (55 to 10). In 1960 the same conduct carries six months to
+five years or a fine (10 to 3): possession and cultivation move to 0, and
+enforcement moves from 2 to 1. In 1997 small personal quantities, including
+growing, are two to six months or a fine, and use is scored with possession
+(3 to 9, the current profile). The 1787 event stays in the history as a
+regional, uncertain, briefly applied smoking ban, with no score.
+
+India: 1793, 1896 and the 1925 Central Provinces charas ban are unscored
+provincial events. The national line stays at 100 until the Narcotic Drugs
+and Psychotropic Substances Act of 14 November 1985, which is the first ban
+covering the whole country. It falls from 100 to 11. The 2001 quantity bands
+still rise from 11 to 13. Provincial excise notes no longer say that the
+chain starts in the licensed regime of 1896.
+
+South Africa: the Orange River Colony ordinance, the Cape poison listing and
+the 1870 Natal enabling power are unscored. The 1922 national ban falls from
+100 to 11, and the later steps are unchanged.
+
+`npm run history:test` checks that 1787, 1793, 1896 and 1903 do not move a
+national score, and that those regional events are not the first scored step
+for their modern country.
+
+Bangladesh still starts in 1793 because its entries place the Bengal licence in
+territory that is now Bangladesh, including the Naogaon growing tract.
+Pakistan's 1914 first step is the Punjab excise act, with Baluchistan's own
+regulation the next year. That chain remains the documented licensed trade
+the 1979 prohibition replaced.

@@ -12,4 +12,5 @@
     "books:check": "node scripts/books-status.cjs --check",
     "books:test": "node --test scripts/books-status.test.cjs",
+    "history:test": "node --test scripts/history-scope.test.cjs",
     "articles:backlog": "node scripts/article-backlog.cjs",
     "scores:triage": "node scripts/score-triage.cjs",

@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+const { test } = require("node:test");
+const assert = require("node:assert/strict");
+const fs = require("node:fs");
+const y = require("js-yaml");
+
+const changes = y.load(fs.readFileSync("changes.yaml", "utf8"));
+const segments = y.load(fs.readFileSync("segments.yaml", "utf8"));
+const FREE = { possession: 10, cultivation: 10, enforcement: 10, sharing: 10, consumption: 10, access: 10 };
+const total = (s) => Math.round(segments.reduce((sum, seg) => sum + (s[seg.id] * seg.weight) / 10, 0));
+const when = (d) => Date.parse(d.length === 4 ? d + "-07-01" : d.length === 7 ? d + "-15" : d);
+const byId = Object.fromEntries(changes.map((e) => [e.id, e]));
+
+function scored(country) {
+  return changes.filter((e) => e.country === country && e.before).sort((a, b) => when(a.date) - when(b.date));
+}
+
+function scoreAt(country, year) {
+  const steps = scored(country);
+  const hit = steps.filter((e) => Number(String(e.date).slice(0, 4)) <= year);
+  if (!hit.length) return steps.length ? { ...steps[0].before } : null;
+  const i = steps.indexOf(hit.at(-1));
+  const next = steps[i + 1];
+  if (next) return { ...next.before };
+  const file = fs.existsSync(`countries/${country}.yaml`) ? `countries/${country}.yaml` : `countries/${country}/index.yaml`;
+  return { ...y.load(fs.readFileSync(file, "utf8")).scores };
+}
+
+test("Madagascar's 1787 royal ban does not carry modern national penalties", () => {
+  const royal = byId["madagascar-merina-ban-1787"];
+  assert.equal(royal.before, undefined);
+  assert.match(royal.unscored, /Imerina/);
+  const then = scoreAt("mg", 1787);
+  assert.deepEqual(then, FREE);
+  assert.equal(total(then), 100);
+  const profile = y.load(fs.readFileSync("countries/mg.yaml", "utf8")).scores;
+  assert.notDeepEqual(then, profile);
+  const first = scored("mg")[0];
+  assert.equal(first.id, "madagascar-colonial-rongony-ban-1915");
+  assert.deepEqual(first.before, FREE);
+  const colony = scoreAt("mg", 1915);
+  assert.equal(colony.possession, 10);
+  assert.equal(colony.cultivation, 10);
+  assert.ok(colony.consumption < 10);
+  const modern = scoreAt("mg", 1997);
+  assert.deepEqual(modern, profile);
+});
+
+test("India's national score starts at the 1985 ban, not a provincial licence", () => {
+  for (const id of ["india-bengal-ganja-licences-1793", "india-act-xii-1896", "india-central-provinces-charas-1925"]) {
+    assert.equal(byId[id].before, undefined, id);
+    assert.match(byId[id].unscored, /Provincial|Bengal|Central Provinces|territories/);
+  }
+  assert.match(byId["india-act-xii-1896"].description, /North-Western Provinces/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(byId["india-act-xii-1896"].description, /all of British India|nationwide/);
+  const first = scored("in")[0];
+  assert.equal(first.id, "india-ndps-act-1985");
+  assert.deepEqual(first.before, FREE);
+  assert.deepEqual(scoreAt("in", 1793), FREE);
+  assert.deepEqual(scoreAt("in", 1896), FREE);
+});
+
+test("South Africa's national score starts at the 1922 ban, not one colony", () => {
+  for (const id of ["orange-river-colony-dagga-ordinance-1903", "cape-colony-dagga-poison-listing-1905", "south-africa-natal-1870"]) {
+    assert.equal(byId[id].before, undefined, id);
+    assert.match(byId[id].unscored, /Colony|Natal/);
+  }
+  const first = scored("za")[0];
+  assert.equal(first.id, "south-africa-national-ban-1922");
+  assert.deepEqual(first.before, FREE);
+  assert.deepEqual(scoreAt("za", 1903), FREE);
+  assert.equal(total(scoreAt("za", 1922)), 11);
+});
+
+test("known regional events are not the first scored step for their modern country", () => {
+  const blocked = new Set([
+    "madagascar-merina-ban-1787",
+    "india-bengal-ganja-licences-1793",
+    "india-act-xii-1896",
+    "india-central-provinces-charas-1925",
+    "orange-river-colony-dagga-ordinance-1903",
+    "cape-colony-dagga-poison-listing-1905",
+    "south-africa-natal-1870",
+  ]);
+  const countries = new Set(changes.map((e) => e.country).filter(Boolean));
+  for (const id of countries) {
+    const first = scored(id)[0];
+    if (first) assert.equal(blocked.has(first.id), false, `${id} starts at ${first.id}`);
+  }
+  for (const id of blocked) assert.equal(byId[id].before, undefined, id);
+});

@@ -1016,5 +1016,5 @@ const kick = (id) => { const i = sections.findIndex(([x]) => x === id); return `
         <div class="ch-stripes-ends" aria-hidden="true"><span>↑ freest today</span><span>strictest today ↓</span></div>
       </div>
-      <p class="ch-source">Each country's score at the end of each year, rebuilt from its history, as in the <a href={`${base}data/#panel`}>yearly data</a>. These are reconstructed scores, including estimated dates and assumed baselines. Madagascar’s early line carries a <a href={`${base}history/madagascar-merina-ban-1787/`}>regional royal smoking ban</a> across the modern country; its continuous nationwide duration is unresolved. Hover a stripe for its country and year; click it for the country's history.</p>
+      <p class="ch-source">Each country's score at the end of each year, rebuilt from its history, as in the <a href={`${base}data/#panel`}>yearly data</a>. These are reconstructed scores, including estimated dates and assumed baselines. A regional or provincial rule stays off the national line until a law covers the whole country. Hover a stripe for its country and year; click it for the country's history.</p>
       <p class="ch-more"><a href={`${base}map/`}>Play the years on the map →</a> <a href={`${base}data/#panel`}>Download the yearly scores →</a></p>
     </section>