Cannabis Freedom Index

Changelog 3bec67c

Extend Tuvalu history and clarify cannabis penalties with inline sources

2 history entries added2 history entries edited1 country profile edited1 article edited1 file of code, design or docs +326 −126 lines

History changes.yaml

Added 2

Edited 2

The Ellice Islands' Dangerous Drugs Ordinance takes effect

description

The colonial ordinance fordrug law inherited by Tuvalu dates to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, in force from ordinance that commenced on 20 October 1948, controlled.[@1] Its later consolidated text controls Indian hemp alongside raw opium and coca leaf, including possession, supply and cultivation. It is still in[@1] Tuvalu's consolidated laws later increased a general fine and introduced cannabis-specific minimum prison terms.[@2,3]

sources

Tuvalu — Law Revision (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2009, Act 4 of 2009 Tuvalu Government — Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025, Act 9 of 2025 PacLII — Tuvalu, Dangerous Drugs Ordinance PacLII (Wayback copy) — Tuvalu, Dangerous Drugs Ordinance 1 unchanged

tags

trade, home-growing

related

tuvalu-drug-fine-increase-2010, tuvalu-drug-amendment-2025

Tuvalu introduces minimum prison terms for cannabis offences

description

Act 9 of 2025 replaced section 5, amended section 8 and added Schedule 3. TheTuvalu introduced minimum prison terms for cannabis offences: the smallest smoking or possession band, no more than 5 g, carries two to five years in prison;, while up to one cannabis plant carries one to five years. New section 14A permits[@1] The same law lets the minister license medical and scientific licencescultivation, manufacture, sale and use. The official catalogue records commencement[@1] It took effect on 3 July 2025. The printed penalty bands overlap and omit intermediate quantities, so no tariff is inferred forcontinuing the gapsdrug controls inherited from the colonial ordinance.[@1,2,3]

sources

Tuvalu Government — Dangerous Drugs Act, CAP. 10.10, 2022 Revised Edition 2 unchanged

related

ellice-islands-dangerous-drugs-1948, tuvalu-drug-fine-increase-2010, tuvalu-youth-cannabis-report-2012

Countries and states 1 file

Tuvalu countries/tv.yaml

segments › possession › text

Schedule 3 of theThe 2025 amendment setspenalty table gives smoking or possessing no more than 5 g of cannabis two to five years for possession ofin prison.[@amendment] It separately lists no more than 510 g, and at three to seven years for no, and more than 1050 g at five to twenty years. Its overlapping[@amendment] The bands overlap, and omitted intermediate quantities require interpretationthe table gives no separate entry for amounts over 10 g through 50 g.[@amendment]

segments › possession › sources

dda2025amendment

segments › cultivation › text

Unlicensed cannabis cultivation is prohibited. Schedule 3 sets[@law, amendment] The 2025 table gives up to one plant one to five years forin prison, up to one plant andthree plants two to seven years for up, and more than five plants four to threeten years. The printed bands leave gaps; do not interpolate a tariff[@amendment] It gives no separate band for four or five plants.[@amendment]

segments › cultivation › sources

dda2022law, dda2025amendment

segments › enforcement › text

The 2025 statuteAct prescribes minimum imprisonment, including two years for the smallest smoking or possession band. Actual post-[@amendment prosecutions] The older general penalty clause provided a fine and sentencing practice were not establishedimprisonment where no specific penalty applied.[@law]

segments › enforcement › sources

dda2025amendment, law

segments › sharing › text

The amended section 8 covers salepossession, selling and trafficking offence is subject to the 2025 penalty table. Schedule 3 gives selling[@amendment] Selling or trafficking no more than 5 g the samecarries two -to -five-year band as possession years in prison; no more than 20 g is listed at five to twelve years. No verified case interpretation of an unpaid gift was found.[@amendment]

segments › sharing › sources

dda2025amendment

segments › consumption › text

The amended section 52025 Act prohibits unlicensed use; Schedule 3 and expressly includes smoking Indian hemp alongsidecannabis in its penalty table.[@amendment] The smallest smoking or possession band carries a minimum of two years in prison.[@amendment]

segments › consumption › sources

dda2025amendment

segments › access › text

No recreational supply route. New section 14A permits ministerial licencesThe minister may license import, export, manufacture, cultivation, sale or use of dangerous drugs for medical and scientific activities; it does not establishpurposes.[@amendment] The Act provides an operating patient supply serviceapplication form and permits conditions covering records, security and reporting.[@amendment]

segments › access › sources

dda2025amendment

context › production › text

The 2025 amendment permits licensedlicensing power covers medical orand scientific cultivation and manufacture. The reviewed sources do not establish actual licensed production[@amendment] Applications must describe the drugs involved, the purpose and the proposed period of the licence.[@amendment]

context › production › sources

dda2025amendment

context › products › text

The licensed framework covers dangerousAct defines Indian hemp as Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica, or any portion of either plant.[@law] Cannabis extracts and tinctures also appear in the schedule of controlled drugs for.[@law] The 2025 medical and scientific purposeslicensing power covers dangerous drugs across import, production, sale and use. It is not evidence of cannabis products being available to consumers.[@amendment]

context › products › sources

dda2025law, amendment

context › medical › text

Section 14A now permitsThe minister can issue medical and scientific licences under the 2025 Act, withsubject to conditions on records, security and reporting. No issued cannabis licence or patient service was verified[@amendment] The application form asks applicants to explain their purpose and why permission should be granted.[@amendment]

context › medical › sources

dda2025amendment

context › consequences › text

Sections 6Unlawfully imported or exported cannabis can be seized and 39 provide for forfeiture of drugsforfeited, and specified articles; section 10the Act permits seizure and destruction of cannabis plants.[@law] Its general penalty clause also provides forfeiture of articles involved in an offence.[@law]

context › consequences › sources

dda2022law

context › clubs › text

No recreational club exemption is established by the reviewed law. The 2025 licensing power is confined to medical and scientific purposes, while unlicensed cultivation, sale and use remain offences.[@amendment]

context › clubs › sources

dda2025amendment

context › planting › text

The Act’s definition of cannabis includes any portion of the plant.[@law] The 2025 Act replaces the former seed-import prohibitionsection with a general licensing rule. Cannabis still includes any portion of the plant; covering import, cultivation and, sale require aand use for medical orand scientific licencepurposes. No personal growing exemption was established.[@law, amendment]

context › planting › sources

dda2022law, dda2025amendment

context › visitors › text

No recreational supply route is established for visitors or residents. The 2025 licence power isAct provides licences for medical and scientific purposes; and prohibits unlicensed cannabis offences have minimum prison termsimport, cultivation, sale and use.[@amendment] Its application form asks for nationality, country and principal residence or place of business.[@amendment]

context › visitors › sources

dda2025amendment

context › driving › text

Drug-impaired driving is prohibited. Section 23 of the Traffic Act covers drivingDriving, attempting to drive, or being in charge of a motor vehicle while efficiency as a driver is impaired by a drug. The government’s current 2022 Revised Edition provides impairs driving efficiency carries a $200 fine and one year’s imprisonment; section 25 permits the court to disqualify the driver or impose licence restrictions for a specified period.[@traffic] Police maycan arrest without warrant on reasonable suspicion of the offence. Section 23’s 0.08% blood-alcohol provision, and alcohol-related presumptions do not establish a THC thresholdcourt may disqualify the driver or impose licence restrictions. The reviewed Act does not set a numeric cannabis limit; current drug-screening, confirmation and specimen-refusal procedures were not established.[@traffic]

context › driving › sources

traffic2022traffic

sources

GOV.UK (FCDO) — Foreign travel advice: Tuvalu, safety and security Tuvalu — Dangerous Drugs Act, 2008 revised edition (PacLII) Wikipedia — Cannabis in Tuvalu 3 unchanged

Articles and atlas entries 1

tuvalu-drug-amendment-2025 articles/tuvalu-drug-amendment-2025.md

text

Tuvalu's 2025 amendment changed both the penalties introduced minimum prison terms for cannabis offences andin July 2025: its smallest smoking or possession band, no more than five grams, carries two to five years in prison.[@1] The same law gives the framework for licensedminister power to license medical orand scientific activitiescultivation, manufacture, sale and use.[@1] ## The older law already controlled cannabis The Dangerous Drugs Act 9traces its commencement to the [colonial ordinance of 2025 added a schedule with minimum prison terms for smoking,1948](/history/ellice-islands-dangerous-drugs-1948/).[@2] Its later consolidated text prohibits cultivation and makes possession and supplying cannabis offences, cultivation with a general fine-and supply-imprisonment clause where no specific penalty applies. The [@2] A [government's legislation catalogue records commencement on report submitted in 2012](/history/tuvalu-youth-cannabis-report-2012/) had identified updating drug laws and coordinating prevention work as priorities.[@3 July 2025; the Act itself provides for commencement on publication] It cited a Funafuti survey in which 5% of respondents aged 15–24 reported having used marijuana, and also reported imports from Fiji.[@3] ## Prison terms for smallSmall amounts acquired minimum prison terms The first row2025 amendment introduced a table with separate rows for growing, smoking or possession of Indian hemp covers quantities not exceeding, and selling or trafficking cannabis.[@1] For smoking or possession, it lists no more than five grams. It gives a minimum of twenty-four months and a maximum of at two to five years. The next band, not exceeding no more than ten grams, gives at three to seven years. For quantities exceeding, and more than fifty grams, the printed range is at five to twenty years. Selling or trafficking has a similar ladder[@1] The printed quantity bands overlap, with an additional bandand it gives no separate row for quantities not exceeding twentyamounts above ten grams through fifty grams. The amendment also changes section 8's wording to refer expressly to trafficking.[@1] For cultivationgrowing, the smallest listed category, not exceedingtable lists up to one plant, carries twelve months at one to five years. Up, up to three plants carriesat two to seven years; exceeding, and more than five plants carries at four to ten years.[@1] Four and five plants have no separate listed band.[@1] ## Gaps inSelling and medical permissions took different paths Selling or trafficking no more than five grams receives the printed table The schedule does not provide a tidy set of consecutive bands. Its smallsame two-quantity descriptions overlap, and it omits intermediate quantities and plant counts. A reader cannot safely fill those gaps by extending a nearby row. The table is reportedto-five-year band as printed; no court interpretation resolving those drafting issues was established in this reviewthe smallest smoking or possession category.[@1] The statutory minimumstable also do not establish how often people have been prosecutedlists a five-to-twelve-year band for selling or imprisoned since the amendmenttrafficking no more than twenty grams. Post-amendment sentencing practice remains a separate research gap. ## A[@1] The new licensing power alongside prohibition The replacement section 5 prohibits importingcovers import, exportingexport, manufacturingmanufacture, cultivatingcultivation, selling or using dangerous drugs without a licence under new section 14A. That section permits the minister to license those activitiessale and use for medical and scientific purposes.[@1] Applicants must use a prescribed form explaining the drugs, withpurpose and proposed licence period.[@1] ## The minister can attach conditions on Licences can carry requirements for record keeping, security and reporting. This introduces[@1] The amendment also rewrites the earlier seed-import section as a statutory licensing route. It does notbroader rule prohibiting import, by itselfexport, demonstrate that cannabis licences have been issuedmanufacture, that medicines are available to patientscultivation, sale or that recreational supply is permitteduse without a licence.[@1,2] The framework should be read alongsidegovernment's catalogue records commencement on 3 July 2025.[@4] The penalty table and licensing power now sit together in the olderrules governing cannabis in [1948 Dangerous Drugs ActTuvalu](/historycountry/ellice-islands-dangerous-drugs-1948tv/), whose cannabis restrictions the amendment reworks.[@1]

sources

Tuvalu Government — Dangerous Drugs Act, CAP. 10.10, 2022 Revised Edition Government of Tuvalu — Initial report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/TUV/1 2 unchanged

model

gpt-6

Code, design and documents 1 file

docs/research/history-tuvalu-gap-2026-10-23.md +106 −0
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+# Tuvalu: an earlier fine increase, youth reporting and the 2025 penalties
+
+Researched 23 October 2026. Two new entries extend Tuvalu's timeline from two events to four.
+The existing 1948 and 2025 entries are revised with inline sources, tags and related links.
+The existing article is rewritten to explain the 2025 penalties and licensing power with inline citations. All fourteen existing profile
+text blocks now have inline citations; six numeric scores and every classification are preserved.
+
+## Earlier fine amendment and conflicting dates
+
+The original Law Revision (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2009, Act 4 of 2009, was downloaded
+and read in full. Section 5 and Schedule 2 replace $2,000 with $4,000 in the Dangerous Drugs
+Act's section 39(2)(a). This is the general High Court penalty clause where no specific penalty
+is provided, not a cannabis-specific possession tariff. The later consolidated Act pairs the
+$4,000 fine with ten years' imprisonment; it also contains a separate summary penalty.
+No inference about sentences actually imposed is made.
+
+The original amendment's title and number say 2009, but its first page expressly prints
+Parliament's enactment as **3 July 2010** and commencement as **6 July 2010**. Both extracted
+text and a rendered image confirm the year. The current catalogue and the 2022 drug-law
+endnote instead give 6 July **2009**. The event uses **2010-07-06**, the commencement printed
+on the original amendment. This conflict needs archival gazette or parliamentary confirmation;
+the later footnote is not silently substituted for the original. Its source locator states
+the conflict. The fine increase is unscored: monetary severity changes inside an existing
+prison-backed offence do not justify a separate whole point in the six-segment index.
+
+## Government report: scope and date
+
+Tuvalu's initial child-rights report CRC/C/TUV/1 is dated **16 February 2012** and was
+circulated by the UN on **10 October 2012**. The event uses the report date, not the later
+circulation date. The full relevant sections (paragraphs 342–346 and 359), cover and context
+were read from the official PDF. It cites a **2006** behavioural survey of people aged
+**15–24 in Funafuti**, of whom 5% reported marijuana use. This is neither current national
+prevalence nor a statistic confined to under-18s. The original survey was not independently
+recovered, so the event says the government report cited it.
+
+The report also describes marijuana imports from Fiji, border-control concerns and youth
+programmes addressing alcohol and drugs. Its phrase about three cases involving police is
+ambiguous about the nature of their involvement; no claim of three police officers being
+arrested or convicted is made. The event omits that count. Paragraph 359 identifies updating
+drug laws and coordinated programming as priorities. The report's policy description that
+illicit use was not directly regulated is not applied as current law after the 2025 amendment.
+The report is context, without a score change.
+
+## Colonial continuity and present legislation
+
+The complete relevant 2022 Revised Edition of the Dangerous Drugs Act was read, including
+commencement, definitions, sections 4–10, the medical-drug chapter, penalties and endnotes.
+It confirms **20 October 1948** commencement and lists numerous later amendments. The 1948
+entry now explicitly distinguishes the inherited ordinance from its later consolidated controls;
+no current fine or 2025 penalty is backdated to 1948. Its existing first-ban score vector stays.
+Cannabis covers either Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica, or any portion of the plant;
+extracts and tinctures also appear separately in Schedule 2.
+
+The 2025 amendment was read directly, including all relevant operative sections, application
+form and the complete cannabis rows of Schedule 3. The penalty table was visually inspected.
+The official catalogue's existing verified **3 July 2025** commencement remains, consistent
+with the Act's commencement-on-publication rule. Its text gives the smallest smoking or
+possession band two to five years, and up to one plant one to five years. These are statutory
+minimums and maximums, not an assertion of observed routine sentencing.
+
+The printed table overlaps its 'not exceeding' rows and leaves amounts over 10 g through
+50 g without a separate smoking/possession row, and four or five cannabis plants without
+a separate growing row. The article and profile state those structural facts. They do not
+interpolate thresholds, infer which overlapping penalty takes precedence or invent a tariff
+for omitted quantities. The law also adds medical/scientific licensing, with application,
+record, security and reporting conditions. An issued licence or operating patient service
+was not verified, so the existing **limited** medical label and access score 0 remain.
+
+The Traffic Act's relevant sections 23 and 25 were independently downloaded and read before
+rewriting the driving block. Impairment by a drug is the offence trigger; the separate 0.08%
+figure concerns alcohol, not THC. The actual penalty and potential disqualification are cited.
+All planting, clubs, visitors and driving status fields match the baseline. No optional context
+section is added merely to repeat a source.
+
+## Rejected lead and retained evidence
+
+The catalogue's 2024 List of Prohibited Imports Regulations was retrieved and read. Its actual
+subject is motorcycles, engines and parts, not cannabis. It therefore produces no cannabis event.
+Earlier amendment numbers listed in the consolidated law remain retrieval leads; a number in
+an endnote alone is not enough to describe a cannabis change.
+
+Downloads, extracted text, inspected images, baseline snapshots, batch scripts and logs remain
+in `tmp/history-tuvalu-gap-2026-10-23/`. The earlier catalogue snapshot is retained in
+`tmp/research-progress-2026-10-15/tv-index.html`. Sources are official statutes and the actual
+state report, not commercial travel pages with unsupported claims about a 1990 drug Act.
+
+## Verification
+
+The scoped verifier checks all four touched events, valid tags/categories, titles, related IDs,
+source use and citation keys. The article has four headings, country/history links and the
+required length. Fourteen profile blocks pass inline-key validation. All score vectors and
+classification fields match their baseline, and the Tuvalu score chain has no flagged steps.
+Build and rendered-export checks are recorded below. Temporary site output is deleted once
+verification is complete; research evidence remains.
+
+The full build passed: **3,834 pages in 35.96 seconds**. All **70 rendered citation links**
+on the four touched history pages and country profile resolve to unique, consecutive targets.
+Seven relevant tag pages and internal history links exist. History JSON/CSV include both new
+events with no raw citation marks. The profile API has six segments and eight populated context
+blocks; its final timeline score matches the exported exact score **5.5** (rounded 6). All six
+exported segment values match the baseline. Medical remains Limited. Home, comparison and score
+exports contain no raw citation marks. The revised article is 390 words with four headings.
+Scoped checks, the score chain and `git diff --check` passed.
+
+Deleted `tmp/history-tuvalu-gap-2026-10-23/site/` after verification. Source documents, texts,
+inspected images, snapshots, scripts and build log remain.

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