Cannabis Freedom Index

Changelog 4c58f0f

history: correct Guyana 1913 entry to bonded-warehouse model; add article

Mills (PRO HO 144/6073) shows the 1913 Ordinance taxed and controlled imports via warehouse and licence fees on the Bengal model — not a growing/possession ban. New article adds the Bengal template, indenture context from Banks, Trinidad 1915 copy and the 1937/1948 continuation (E/NL.1948/42 read in full).

1 history entry edited1 article written1 file of code, design or docs +102 −8 lines

History changes.yaml

Edited 1

British Guiana puts imported cannabis in bonded warehouses

title

British Guiana passes the Indian Hemp Ordinanceputs imported cannabis in bonded warehouses

description

The ordinance moved from licensing to prohibition, banning the growing and possession ofIndian Hemp Ordinance put imported cannabis. The historian James Mills, citing under a 1924 Home Office file, describes it differentlybonded-warehouse and licence system on the Bengal model: imported cannabisall imports had to be stored in a colonial bonded warehouse and released only to traders who had paid for a licence, the model fee.[@1] Trinidad copied the model in 1915.[@1] Mills describes it as a tax-and-control system for the import trade, citing a 1924 Home Office file, not a prohibition of use.[@1]

sources

Wikipedia — Cannabis in Guyana 1 unchanged

Articles and atlas entries 1

Code, design and documents 1 file

docs/research/history-guyana-1913-2026-10-26.md +56 −0
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+# Research pass: Guyana 1913 article, entry corrected to warehouse model
+
+Research checked on 26 October 2026. The 1913 entry's self-contradictory
+description (prohibition claim vs Mills's warehouse account) is resolved in
+favour of the read primary scholarship, with a new properly sourced
+article; a 1948 UN order read in full supplies the article's ending. No
+scores, profiles or timelines changed.
+
+## What was verified (all sources actually read)
+
+### Mills, Cannabis Britannica (local PDF, read in full relevant passages)
+
+- The Indian Hemp Ordinance of British Guiana 1913 and Trinidad's Ganja
+  Ordinance 1915 both set up bonded-warehouse and licence-fee systems for
+  imported cannabis on the Bengal model recommended by the Indian Hemp
+  Drugs Commission; Guiana took the West Indian initiative. Cited to PRO
+  HO 144/6073, 29 April 1924. Framed as tax-and-control ("a slice of the
+  profits of the drug trade"), not prohibition of use.
+- This contradicts the entry's old first sentence (prohibition of growing
+  and possession, from Wikipedia). Entry rewritten: retitled to the
+  warehouse measure, licensing description with per-sentence citations,
+  Wiki source removed, Mills locator sharpened. Category stays `ban` (the
+  colony's first import restriction; cf. the 1861 licensing entry also
+  being `ban`), and the partial `before` scores are untouched — they fit a
+  licensing regime better than a ban.
+- New `articles/guyana-indian-hemp-ordinance-1913.md` (355 words, 4
+  sections, all 3 sources cited): the Bengal template and "slice of the
+  profits" motive from Mills; 1861 anticipatory licensing, migrant numbers
+  and the ganja complex from the Banks chapter (local EPUB, re-read);
+  Trinidad 1915 copy; 1937 Ordinance and 1948 order from the UN filing;
+  links to the 1861 and 2022 entries and /country/gy/.
+
+### UN E/NL.1948/42 (British Guiana, read in full via UN Digital Library)
+
+- Order in Council No. 28 of 1948, made 25 May 1948 under s.10(3) of the
+  Dangerous Drugs Ordinance No. 10 of 1937: Part IV extended to amidone,
+  desomorphine, metopon, pethidine and non-external Indian-hemp
+  extract/tincture preparations. Added as article source [3]; the 1937
+  entry itself was left untouched (already accurate).
+
+## Dead ends recorded, not forced
+
+- The 1913 ordinance text and the 1924 Home Office file (PRO HO
+  144/6073) are not readable online; Mills's account is the cited
+  evidence. No claim made about growing/possession provisions either way.
+- Gallica remains 403 from here (Madagascar JO lane closed). USVI 1937
+  and Denmark 1969 lanes need nothing (already primary-sourced).
+
+## Verification and files
+
+- `node -e` YAML load of changes.yaml clean (run before build).
+- `npm run build`, `npm run history:test`, `npm run answers:test` all green;
+  rendered `/history/guyana-indian-hemp-ordinance-1913/` citation marks
+  checked.
+- Commit limited to own work: the 1913 hunk in changes.yaml, the new
+  article, this note. Foreign staged/worktree files excluded and preserved.

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