Cuba countries/cu.yaml
Article 236(b) of the 2022 Penal Code punishes simple possession of cannabis or its deriva … or prescription with six months to two years in prison, a fine of 200–500 quotas, or both.[@ley151] This is separate from the higher trafficking ranges. The provision establishes no lawful personal-use quantity.[@ley151] [The 2022 Code kept six months to two years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/) [Simple possession drew a fine from 1994.](/history/cuba-cannabis-possession-fine-1994/)
Article 235(1)(d) punishes unauthorised cannabis cultivation and knowing possession of its seeds or plant parts with four to ten years.[@ley151] Land can be confiscated or usufruct and occupancy rights withdrawn.[@ley151] Aggravating circumstances can bring a higher range.[@ley151] [The 2022 Code kept four to ten years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/) [Growing drew four to ten years from 1999.](/history/cuba-law-87-1999/)
Officials describe a policy of zero tolerance and severe punishment.[@oncuba] In November 2023 the Supreme Court reported 689 people sanctioned for offences linked to drug trafficking that year to date, 92% with prison sentences.[@oncuba] Those figures cover drugs generally and do not establish a cannabis-only imprisonment rate.[@oncuba] [689 people were sanctioned in 2023.](/history/cuba-courts-689-sanctioned-2023/)
Article 235(1)(a) includes providing illicit drugs to another person, without requiring payment in every case, within the four-to-ten-year range.[@ley151] Article 235(2) provides ten to thirty years, life imprisonment or death for specified aggravated circumstances, including international trafficking.[@ley151] [Death reached traffickers in 1999.](/history/cuba-law-87-1999/) [The 2022 Code broadened aggravations.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
The government describes its drug policy as zero tolerance.[@oncuba] Cannabis possession can bring prison under article 236; that provision punishes possession rather than defining a separate act of consumption.[@ley151] Article 235 also punishes operating premises intended for gatherings to consume illicit drugs.[@ley151] Officials report free detoxification treatment.[@oncuba] [The rebels punished smoking in 1958.](/history/cuba-rebel-territory-cannabis-ban-1958/)
No legal source.[@oncuba] [The 2022 Code kept six months to two years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
Law 87 of 1999 provided fifteen to thirty years or death for specified aggravated drug offences.[@ley87] The replacement 2022 Code's article 235(2) provides ten to thirty years, life imprisonment or death and lists broader aggravating circumstances.[@ley151] Simple possession has a separate lower range in article 236. No, and no execution for a cannabis offence was found in the sources read.[@ley151] [Death reached traffickers in 1999.](/history/cuba-law-87-1999/) [The 2022 Code broadened aggravations.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
There is no legal recreational supply. Simple possession without authorisation or prescrip … hment, and running premises for group consumption is separately punished.[@oncuba,ley151] [The 2022 Code kept six months to two years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/) [The rebels punished smoking in 1958.](/history/cuba-rebel-territory-cannabis-ban-1958/)
Article 235(1)(d) of the 2022 Penal Code punishes unauthorised cultivation of Cannabis, known as marihuana, and knowing possession of its seeds or plant parts with four to ten years.[@ley151] This is distinct from article 236's simple-possession provision. No, and no lawful personal cultivation or seed-supply route was established.[@ley151] [The 2022 Code kept four to ten years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
Reliable national information about lawful cannabisNo licensed production was not established byoperates: unauthorised cultivation draws four to ten years under article 235, and the retained sources read establish no licensing regime.[@ley151] [The 2022 Code kept four to ten years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
ley151
Reliable national information about legally available cannabis products was not established by the retained sources.
The retained sources do not establish whether aNo medical cannabis programme operates in the sources read: possession and growing are punishable without a patient route, and authorised use is limited to prescription channels with no patient supply established.[@ley151] [The 2022 Code kept six months to two years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
ley151
A conviction is a criminal record with lasting effects on work and travel.[@cn1] Marijuana trials have drawn long exemplary sentences.[@cn1] [The 2022 Code broadened aggravations.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
No lawful cannabis-club route was established. Article 235 prohibits unauthorised cultivation and supply and also punishes operating premises intended for people to gather and consume illicit drugs.[@ley151] [The 2022 Code broadened aggravations.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
No lawful recreational supply for visitors was established.[@ley151] Article 236 applies a separate simple-cannabis-possession range of six months to two years, a fine or both; introduction and supply fall under article 235's higher ranges. The code does not establish a, with no visitor exemption in the code.[@ley151] [The 2022 Code kept six months to two years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
Official figures released in November 2023 counted 689 people sanctioned for drug- traffic … with prison, and 1,213 Cubans and 13 foreigners prosecuted between January and September.[@oncuba23] The interior ministry reported 2,290 kg of drugs seized in those nine months and 77 cases of marijuana growing, concentrated in the eastern provinces; its anti-drug chief called marijuana the most consumed drug.[@oncuba23] In three weeks of October and November 193 people were detained for trafficking and possession.[@oncuba23] The totals cover drugs generally, except for the separately identified cannabis-growing cases; they are not national counts of cannabis arrests or convictions alone.[@oncuba23] [689 people were sanctioned in 2023.](/history/cuba-courts-689-sanctioned-2023/)
Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum — Cannabis en Cuba, collection record Marihuana in Latin America: The Threat it Constitutes 5 unchanged
label Simple possession (article 236(b)) · treatment criminal · prison 2 years · prison min 6 months · term Simple possession · note A fine of 200–500 quotas, or both; no lawful personal-use quantity
label Unauthorised cultivation and seed possession (article 235(1)(d)) · treatment criminal · prison 10 years · prison min 4 years · term Unlawful cultivation · note Land confiscation or loss of usufruct and occupancy rights; higher range if aggravated
none
No hemp exception operates. Hemp was tried in 1793 but the planters stayed with sugarcane, and the modern code punishes unauthorised cultivation of Cannabis, known as marihuana, with four to ten years, with no low-THC carve-out.[@abel,ley151] [Hemp was tried in 1793.](/history/cuba-hemp-trial-1793/) [The 2022 Code kept four to ten years.](/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/)
abel, ley151
Cuba argued about cannabis in print before it policed it hard. A 1937 Havana book, Expendedores y viciosos, attacked cannabis through campaigning rhetoric with the 1931 Geneva convention as appendix.[@hashmuseum] A 1949 survey traced the island's marijuana to Portuguese sailors via a Mexican port some thirty years earlier, with home plots spreading as wartime shipping shrank.[@wolff] Hemp had already failed in 1793 against sugarcane, and rebels were punishing smoking by 1958.[@abel] [Hemp was tried in 1793.](/history/cuba-hemp-trial-1793/) [A 1937 book attacked cannabis.](/history/cuba-gil-carballo-book-1937/) [A 1949 survey traced the supply.](/history/cuba-marijuana-survey-1949/) [The rebels punished smoking in 1958.](/history/cuba-rebel-territory-cannabis-ban-1958/)
hashmuseum, wolff, abel