Cannabis Freedom Index

Changelog 60f3370

Extend Cuba’s cannabis history from 1919 controls to possession reforms

5 history entries added1 history entry edited3 articles written1 article edited4 files of code, design or docs +539 −31 lines

History changes.yaml

Added 5

Edited 1

Cuba first restricts cannabis

date

19251919

description

No first law is recorded here for Cuba. Its first restrictions on cannabis are assumed to date from afterA historical study identifies marijuana among the 1925 Geneva conventiondrugs regulated by Cuba's 1919 law, which put Indian hemp under international controlwith licensed import and production and criminal penalties extending to possession. They were in place by 1950:[@1] The full sequence from those controls to later prohibition remains provisional here; a United NationsUN survey published in January 1951 statesreported that all the American states prohibited the keeping and consumption ofconsuming hemp was prohibited throughout the American states by 1950.[@2]

window

19251919, 1950

sources

¿Elementos indeseables y antisanitarios? Entre la criminalización científico-sanitaria y la persecución policial de la inmigración china durante el desarrollo de la política inmigratoria en Cuba (1902–1935) Wikipedia — International Opium Convention 1 unchanged

Articles and atlas entries 4

cuba-law-87-1999 articles/cuba-law-87-1999.md

text

Law 87 rewrote Cuba’s principal drug-trafficking provision and made specified aggravated drug offences punishable by fifteen to thirty years in prison or death. The National Assembly adopted the law on 16 February 1999. It appeared in the *Gaceta Oficial* on 15 March 1999. Cannabis cultivation, supplying drugs and its final provision made publication the starting pointholding them for its operationtrafficking came within the rewritten offence. The amendment was part of a wider revision of the Penal Codehighest range applied when specified aggravating circumstances were present.[@1] ## Personal possession kept its own sentence By then, notsimple cannabis possession already had a separate cannabis statute. Cannabis was expressly included within the provision, but the maximum penalty was not the sentence for every person possessing it. ## Trafficking and cultivation: six months to two years in one provision Article 10prison, a fine of the200–500 quotas, or both. The [amending lawfine option came from the 1994 amendment](https:/history/oig.cepal.orgcuba-cannabis-possession-fine-1994/sites/default/files/1999_cub_ley87.pdf) replaced article 190. Its ordinary range was four to ten yearsLaw 87 rewrote the main trafficking offence while that separate possession rule continued. The conduct included unauthorised production[@1, transport and trafficking2] For someone found with cannabis, the purpose of holding it therefore mattered. The supply offence expressly covered possession with the purpose of trafficking. The simple-possession offence covered holdings without the required authorisation or medical prescription.[@1,2] ## Growers could lose their land The ordinary range for trafficking, production, transport and providingsupplying drugs to another person was four to ten years. The same article expressly covered cultivation ofrange applied to growing the plant itthe law called *Cannabis Indica*, known as marihuana, and knowing possession ofknowingly possessing its seeds or parts. This was the statute’s terminology[@1] For growers, rather than a restriction limited to a modern retail category called indicathe consequences extended beyond prison. Cultivation also exposed landholders to Owners faced confiscation of their land or loss of the land. Those who held a right to use or occupy it could lose that right. The consequence reached beyondCourts could also confiscate other property from people convicted under the prison sentence to the legal basis on which the grower held the landtrafficking article. ## When the maximum rose to death[@1] Relatively large quantities carriedraised the prison range to eight to twenty years under article 190(2). A separate aggravated range of fifteen to thirty years or death appliedThe law placed its capital cases in circumstances specified in paragraph 3a further, separately defined group. Those circumstances included[@1] ## International trafficking could carry death The highest range covered officials exploiting their position or state resources, involvement in international trafficking, and offences using a personsomeone under sixteen in the offence. The wording supplied conditions for the enhanced penalty; it did not authorise treating all cannabis offences as capital casesIt allowed fifteen to thirty years or death.[@1] The provisionamendment also punished failure to report known preparation or execution ofreached people who knew about preparations for these offences, or their execution and addressed preparatoryfailed to report them: they faced two to five years. Preparatory acts were punishable under the code's general rules. It built an enforcement framework around drug activity rather than confining liability to[@1] The National Assembly adopted the law in February 1999. Its publication on 15 March brought it into operation under its final salecommencement rule.[@1] ## Simple possession remained distinct The replacement code retained capital drug offences The [consolidated2022 code](https:/history/www.wipo.intcuba-penal-code-2022/wipolex/es/legislation/details/900) placed simplekept cannabis possession in article 191. Cannabis possession without the required authorisation or medical prescription carried six months to two years, a separate offence with the same prison and fine, or both options. The annotation attributes that wording to the 1994 amendment, not Law 87. Consequently, a description giving only theCultivation and supply retained an ordinary four-to-ten-year range would omit, while the separate possession offence. A description saying cannabis possession automatically carriedaggravated range became ten to thirty years, life imprisonment or death would be more seriously misleading. Both the conduct and the, with a broader list of aggravating circumstances mattered. ## A historical code[@3] Those distinctions between possession, later replaced growing and aggravated supply remain central to the [Cuba profile](/country/cu/) replaced this code with .[Law 151 in 2022@3] (/history/cuba-penal-code-2022/). The new text retained separate possession and cultivation provisions and continued to provide capital punishment in aggravated drug cases, with altered ranges and conditions. The 1999 amendment establishes that the penalty existed in law. It does not establish an execution for cannabis, and none was identified in the records reviewed for this article. A statutory maximum and evidence of a sentence being imposed or carried out must remain separate historical claims.

model

gpt-6

Code, design and documents 4 files

docs/BOOK-RESEARCH.md +15 −1
@@ -5,5 +5,5 @@ Generated from [books.yaml](books.yaml) and the local `books/` inventory. Refres
 **Read** means the recorded chapter was read; **partial** means only the named pages or sections were examined; **indexed** means a contents entry only. Counts include introductions where catalogued. They are not percentages of pages or proof that a whole book is covered. Applied targets count distinct recorded content/event references, not independent findings.
 
-**23 catalogued books**; 20 with recorded substantive reading; 1 awaiting bibliography verification.
+**24 catalogued books**; 21 with recorded substantive reading; 1 awaiting bibliography verification.
 
 | Book | Bibliography | Fully read / listed units | Partial | Indexed only | Applied targets | Illustrations | Local file |
@@ -32,4 +32,5 @@ Generated from [books.yaml](books.yaml) and the local `books/` inventory. Refres
 | [Drogas: A história do proibicionismo](#carneiro-drogas-proibicionismo-2019) | verified | 1 / 11 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | matches recorded hash |
 | [Hashish, Wine, Opium](#gautier-baudelaire-hashish-wine-opium-2009) | verified | 0 / 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | matches recorded hash |
+| [El rescate de la memoria: Historias de transgresión, marginación y justicia en América Latina, siglos XIX y XX](#trujillo-fessler-rescate-memoria-2021) | verified | 0 / 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | matches recorded hash |
 
 ## Inventory alerts
@@ -653,2 +654,15 @@ Missing local books are expected on other checkouts. A changed hash requires edi
 | Hashish | indexed_only | — | — | — |
 | Wine and Hashish Compared as Means for the Multiplication of the Personality | selected_sections_read | Sections 5–7, especially section 6 on wine, willpower and Egyptian prohibition | articles/france-paradis-artificiels-1860.md | — |
+
+<a id="trujillo-fessler-rescate-memoria-2021"></a>
+
+## El rescate de la memoria: Historias de transgresión, marginación y justicia en América Latina, siglos XIX y XX
+
+- **ID:** `trujillo-fessler-rescate-memoria-2021`
+- **Local file:** `books/El rescate de la memoria (Trujillo Breton and Fessler, 2021).pdf`
+- **Last recorded review:** 2026-10-25
+- **Coverage:** Title, copyright and contents checked; selected pages of the Cuba chapter only. This catalogue indexes one relevant chapter, not the full book's contents.
+
+| Chapter / unit | Status | Actually examined | Applied to | Next research |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| ¿Elementos indeseables y antisanitarios? Entre la criminalización científico-sanitaria y la persecución policial de la inmigración china durante el desarrollo de la política inmigratoria en Cuba (1902–1935) | selected_pages_read | pp. 329, 346–348, 362–364 | changes.yaml#cuba-cannabis-drug-trade-controls-1919; changes.yaml#cu-first-restriction-estimate; articles/cuba-cannabis-drug-trade-controls-1919.md | Retrieve the cited 1919 law-and-regulations booklet, especially the cannabis schedule, penalties and commencement; check earlier pharmacy controls and cultivation history before replacing the remaining aggregate score estimate. Remaining chapter pages unread. |
docs/DATA-MAINTENANCE.md +10 −0
@@ -1465,2 +1465,12 @@ ordinary growing penalties (exact score 10.5), and corrects the classification
 of theft-of-drugs convictions. Early Uzbek SSR implementation and the original
 quantity tables remain open; the research note records the historical score limits.
+
+A [Cuban possession-history pass](research/history-cuba-gap-2026-10-25.md) on
+25 October 2026 adds the 1958 rebel-territory cannabis rule, the 1979 code's
+three-year personal-possession ceiling, its reduction to two years in April
+1988 and the express cannabis fine option published in June 1994. Two new
+articles explain the 1988 and 1994 changes; the 1999 article now connects those
+stages with inline citations. Current scores are unchanged. A subsequently retrieved scholarly
+chapter adds a fifth entry and third new article on the 1919 licensed-drug controls.
+The aggregate estimate now spans 1919–1950; the original law and full cultivation/
+medical-access sequence remain open. The book catalogue records the selected pages read.
docs/books.yaml +39 −0
@@ -2742,2 +2742,41 @@ books:
         applied_to:
           - articles/france-paradis-artificiels-1860.md
+
+  - id: trujillo-fessler-rescate-memoria-2021
+    title: 'El rescate de la memoria: Historias de transgresión, marginación y justicia en América Latina, siglos XIX y XX'
+    editors: [Jorge Alberto Trujillo Bretón, Daniel Fessler]
+    publisher: Universidad de Guadalajara
+    year: 2021
+    isbn: 978-607-571-388-5
+    local_file: books/El rescate de la memoria (Trujillo Breton and Fessler, 2021).pdf
+    sha256: cc7138b55c438cfa9f237be29fe885c9438322a3af7ffb264d45231d1163a2e1
+    pdf_pages: 438
+    reviewed: '2026-10-25'
+    metadata_status: verified
+    coverage: >-
+      Title, copyright and contents checked; selected pages of the Cuba chapter only.
+      This catalogue indexes one relevant chapter, not the full book's contents.
+    pagination:
+      - printed: 329–364
+        pdf: 330–365
+        offset: 1
+    caution: >-
+      The chapter is historical interpretation, not the original 1919 statute. Opium-specific
+      persecution and arrest figures must not be presented as cannabis enforcement data.
+    reading_notes: docs/research/history-cuba-gap-2026-10-25.md
+    chapters:
+      - title: ¿Elementos indeseables y antisanitarios? Entre la criminalización científico-sanitaria y la persecución policial de la inmigración china durante el desarrollo de la política inmigratoria en Cuba (1902–1935)
+        authors: [Dayron Oliva Hernández]
+        printed_start: 329
+        next_chapter_boundary: 365
+        pdf_start: 330
+        status: selected_pages_read
+        pages_reviewed: 329, 346–348, 362–364
+        applied_to:
+          - changes.yaml#cuba-cannabis-drug-trade-controls-1919
+          - changes.yaml#cu-first-restriction-estimate
+          - articles/cuba-cannabis-drug-trade-controls-1919.md
+        follow_up: >-
+          Retrieve the cited 1919 law-and-regulations booklet, especially the cannabis schedule,
+          penalties and commencement; check earlier pharmacy controls and cultivation history
+          before replacing the remaining aggregate score estimate. Remaining chapter pages unread.
docs/research/history-cuba-gap-2026-10-25.md +135 −0
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+# Cuba: possession penalties before the 1999 and 2022 codes
+
+Research checked on 25 October 2026. Read the maintenance, writing and local-book
+research guidance. This pass targets Cuba's sparse eight-entry timeline.
+
+## Applied evidence
+
+- **1958 rebel territory:** Cuba's official *Programa Nacional de Prevención del
+  Uso Indebido y Control de Drogas*, held in the WHO policy repository,
+  [introduction, PDF page 1](https://platform.who.int/docs/default-source/mca-documents/policy-documents/plan-strategy/CUB-AD-17-01-PLAN-STRATEGY-1958-esp-Programa-Nacional-Prevencion-Drogas.pdf).
+  Read through the web tool; a direct download returned 403. Its retrospective
+  account expressly dates Disposición 6 to **7 October 1958**, says it entered
+  into force then, and lists harvesting, trafficking, carrying, keeping and
+  smoking marijuana. This is a rebel-territory rule, not proof of the first
+  nationwide restriction. No specific sentence was supplied or invented. The
+  document is a later national programme: its filename's `1958` is not its
+  publication date. Its introduction discusses a programme adopted in 1999.
+- **1979 code:** the drug provisions officially supplied to the UN in
+  [E/NL.1985/90, within E/NL.1985/88–91](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/50858/files/e-nl-1985-88-91-s.pdf),
+  printed/PDF pp. 12–13. Downloaded, extracted and visually checked PDF page 12.
+  Article 218 gives **six months to three years** for simple possession.
+  Article 217 expressly names marijuana, with **three to eight years** for
+  growing/supply, **seven to fifteen** for relatively large volumes, and loss of
+  the grower's land/right. Where someone under sixteen was used, the bands were
+  **six to ten** and **ten to twenty**. The UN excerpt has no commencement clause.
+  The **1 November 1979** commencement comes from the full-text 2024 study by
+  Alejandro Simón Valdés and Alie Pérez Véliz,
+  [RIDCA, discussion of Law 21](https://aidca.org/ridca5-penal-valdez-perez-veliz-regulacion-normativa-de-las-sanciones-en-cuba-enfoques-teoricos-criminologicos-que-las-han-sustentado/),
+  also downloaded; PDF p. 6. Do not confuse adoption, gazette publication and
+  commencement dates in secondary bibliographic descriptions.
+- **1988 code:** [UNHCR's unamended Law 62 text](https://www.acnur.org/fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2006/4417.pdf?file=fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2006/4417),
+  read with the web tool, printed pp. 59–60 and 99. Article 191 cuts simple
+  possession to **six months to two years**. Article 190 retains the ordinary
+  growing/supply bands while reducing the child-related minima to **four** and
+  **eight** years. Final provision three expressly starts the code on
+  **30 April 1988**. A later consolidation must not be used as its original text.
+- **1994 fine option:** [WIPO Lex's annotated consolidation](https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/es/legislation/details/900),
+  read as HTML and downloaded as a PDF; printed pp. 88–89, article 191(b).
+  Visually checked page 88. The fine of **200–500 quotas**, alone or with the
+  six-month-to-two-year prison sentence, is attributed to article 3 of
+  Decree-Law 150, signed 6 June 1994 and published **10 June 1994**. The new
+  event uses **1994-06**, expressly the publication month. The original
+  commencement clause remains unread: **10 June is not asserted as a verified
+  commencement day**. Cannabis, cocaine and other drugs have separate bands.
+- **1999 and 2022:** reread the existing downloaded Law 87 (article 10 and final
+  provisions) and Law 151 (articles 235–236) in `tmp/cuba-history/` and compared
+  with WIPO. These establish the later context, the retained simple-possession
+  band and why aggravated trafficking maxima must stay separate. Rewrote the
+  1999 article with inline citations and links to the earlier possession story.
+
+Local working files and extractions are in ignored
+`tmp/history-cuba-gap-2026-10-25/`. No complete source PDF is published by this
+batch. The separately retrieved historical book is catalogued as described below.
+
+## Scoring
+
+The profile and current score remain unchanged. The 1958 rule is regional, and
+1979 documents a national code without establishing the first prohibition.
+The 1988 sentence reduction and 1994 fine option are real legal easing, recorded
+as such; both leave prison for personal holdings available within the existing
+possession level. There is no new representative evidence that a fine became
+usual in practice. No enforcement improvement is inferred from an available
+sentencing alternative. The estimated early aggregate remains provisional.
+
+## Earlier 1919 controls: chapter retrieved and read
+
+The publisher's **HTTP** URL finally returned the full 28.8 MB book after HTTPS
+and CLACSO requests failed. Read its title, copyright and contents pages, chapter
+opening, printed pp. **346–348**, and bibliography pp. **362–364**. Visually checked
+the copyright page and p. **347**, where marijuana is explicitly named. The
+chapter is Dayron Oliva Hernández's “¿Elementos indeseables y antisanitarios?”,
+pp. 329–364, in *El rescate de la memoria*, edited by Jorge Alberto Trujillo Bretón
+and Daniel Fessler, Universidad de Guadalajara, first edition 2021, digital ISBN
+978-607-571-388-5. PDF pagination is printed page +1 in that chapter.
+
+This is now applied evidence, not a search-snippet lead. A fifth new event and
+third new article document the 1919 controls. The event uses **1919**, the known
+law year, and describes the law of 25 July; it does not assert that adoption day
+as a verified commencement. The author says import/production were reserved to
+recognised pharmacists and druggists and identifies a broad trafficking definition
+extending to possession. The original law-and-regulations booklet is cited in the
+chapter's bibliography but has not itself been read. Prison/fine details are
+therefore not converted into a cannabis-specific statutory tariff.
+
+The former **1925–1950** aggregate estimate now uses **1919–1950** and cites the
+read chapter instead of Wikipedia. It remains an estimate: the precise first
+instrument, cultivation prohibition and medical-access sequence are not yet
+reconstructed. The new 1919 event documents the licensed-drug regime as context;
+it does not falsely assign today's complete six-segment restriction to the law's
+adoption day. The current score stays 3; the annual historical panel changes only
+within the earlier estimated window.
+
+The local book is stored in ignored `books/`, with its SHA-256, edition, page
+mapping and **selected-page** reading record in `docs/books.yaml`; the generated
+book-coverage report is refreshed. Only the relevant chapter is indexed, not the
+whole book. Remaining chapter pages are unread. Opium-specific arrest counts and
+anti-Chinese persecution are attributed to that drug and the author's analysis,
+not presented as cannabis arrest figures.
+
+Sources and follow-up:
+
+- [Publisher PDF](http://www.publicaciones.cucsh.udg.mx/kiosko/2021/El%20rescate%20de%20la%20memoria%202021.pdf),
+  successfully downloaded. The publisher's HTTPS endpoint timed out.
+- [CLACSO copy](https://biblioteca-repositorio.clacso.edu.ar/bitstream/CLACSO/253109/1/2021_978-607-571-388-5.pdf),
+  returned 403 locally; not used as evidence of reading.
+- Retrieve *Ley y Reglamento regulando la distribución, prescripción y empleo de
+  los productos narcóticos* (Habana: Rambla, Bouza y Cía., 1919), cited on p. 363.
+  Verify its cannabis schedule, penalties and commencement before sharpening the
+  estimate or assigning new historical segment values.
+- Other original-text leads are the 1924 narcotics decree discussed by Antonio
+  Gil Carballo and Social Defence Code article 461. Do not import an opium-only
+  decree into the cannabis timeline without a named schedule or equivalent proof.
+
+A current-law scan also identified **Dictamen 476 (2025)** concerning synthetic
+cannabinoids. The original ruling and its exact scope remain to be read; do not
+apply synthetic-cannabinoid prosecution rules to herbal cannabis by inference.
+
+## Validation
+
+- All 36 history tests and six answer/profile tests pass.
+- Book catalogue/report check passes with the newly recorded file hash and
+  selected-page reading coverage.
+- Production build passes with 4,116 pages.
+- Parsed-data comparison finds exactly five new checked events and one revised
+  existing object (Cuba's aggregate estimate); other history objects and the
+  current Cuba profile are unchanged.
+- All four touched articles have 350–500 words, four headings, valid inline
+  citations and valid internal history links. Shared history/article source
+  records are aligned so one source does not appear twice in the references.
+- Rendered citation targets, clean JSON/CSV exports, article/related links,
+  unchanged current score and the revised 1919–1950 annual interpolation are
+  checked. Desktop/mobile browser pages show no horizontal overflow; screenshots
+  were visually reviewed.
+- The pre-existing staged and unstaged `source-archive.json` work is preserved
+  and excluded from the content commit.
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