Reconstruct Ukraine’s growing reforms and correct possession penalties

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+# Ukraine: reconstructing possession and growing across the new criminal code
+
+Reviewed 25 October 2026. Three new events (2001 code, 2008 reform, 2024
+probation), six existing history revisions and three new articles. This extends
+the preceding Ukraine notes and supersedes their deferred 2001/2009 questions.
+The broad coverage goal and pre-1974 research remain open.
+
+## Original texts and editions read
+
+- **Original Criminal Code, 5 April 2001 edition**:
+  <https://zakononline.ua/documents/show/253776___253841>.
+  Followed the original-edition link from the later 2024 reproduction. Read
+  articles 307(4), 309–310 and final/transitional Section I(1)–(2). The code
+  expressly commenced **1 September 2001** and repealed the old code then.
+  Ordinary cultivation had no plant-count minimum; fine up to 50 tax-free
+  minimums, arrest up to six months, or restriction of liberty up to three years.
+  The aggravated tier included 500 or more plants, specified prior crimes and
+  group growing for sale; three to seven years' imprisonment.
+- **Old code's final article 229-8**, before replacement:
+  <https://iplex.com.ua/doc.php?code=2002-05>.
+  Read its separate small-personal-quantity offence, requiring repetition within
+  a year after an administrative penalty, punishable by up to two years or a
+  fine. Its amendment notes retain that offence through the 1999 amendments.
+  The reproduction's repeal note confirms 1 September 2001. This is evidence
+  for the final old-law position, not the original 1960 position.
+- **Original Supreme Court Plenum Resolution 4, 26 April 2002**:
+  <https://zakononline.ua/documents/show/220363___220428>.
+  Read paragraphs 4 (supply/gifts), 15 (public/group use), 22 (small personal
+  quantities handled administratively), 23–24 (surrender and treatment), and
+  closing repeal of the 1998 guidance. Only paragraph 22 and exemption context
+  are used in the new code article. The later December 2009 edition was not
+  backdated into 2002. Paragraph 22 corroborates the absence of a separate
+  small-quantity repeat offence in the replacement code.
+- **Original Law 270-VI, 15 April 2008**:
+  <https://zakononline.ua/documents/show/289069___289134>.
+  Read Part I(1)(65)–(66) and final provisions 1–7. It adds fine/corrective-labour/
+  arrest choices to ordinary article 309 and adds **more than 100 plants** to
+  article 310(1). Final provisions order release for decriminalised conduct,
+  case closures and reductions of excessive existing sentences; other sentences
+  continue. It commenced on publication; only fine-instalment provisions were
+  deferred to January 2009.
+  Publication metadata reproduced from Rada open data records **7 May 2008**,
+  Uriadovyi Kurier no. 83:
+  <https://uristvzakone.com/npa/pro-vnesennia-zmin-do-kryminalnoho-ta-kryminalno-protsesualnoho-270-17>.
+  The official code catalogue also lists its revision from 7 May. Direct Rada
+  body/card fetches were intermittent, returned placeholders, 403 or timeout.
+- **Law 1165-VI, 19 March 2009**, complete amendment:
+  <https://zakon.cc/law/document/read/1165-17>.
+  Read administrative article 106-2, both criminal article 310 amendments and
+  publication commencement clause. Rada open-data metadata records **7 April
+  2009**, Holos Ukrainy and Uriadovyi Kurier no. 62:
+  <https://uristvzakone.com/npa/pro-vnesennia-zmin-do-kodeksu-ukrainy-pro-administratyvni-1165-17>.
+  This corrects the old event's adoption-date placement and its misleading
+  implication that exactly ten plants carried only an administrative penalty.
+- **Law 3342-IX, 23 August 2023**:
+  <https://zakon.cc/law/document/read/3342-20>.
+  Read new article 59-1; amendments (89)–(90), replacing ordinary articles 309/310
+  penalties; final provisions, including six-month commencement and replacement
+  of unserved arrest-house sentences. The human rights commissioner's original
+  28 September 2023 announcement expressly identifies **28 March 2024**:
+  <https://www.ombudsman.gov.ua/uk/news_details/v-ukrayini-zaprovadzhuyetsya-novij-vid-pokarannya-za-vchinennya-kriminalnogo-pravoporushennya-probacijnij-naglyad>.
+  It describes reporting, travel restrictions, possible additional duties and
+  supervision without isolation from society. No universal release count or
+  practical sentencing frequency is inferred.
+
+The original 1995 law and companion resolution were read in the preceding pass.
+They are reused for the before/after comparison and score allocation:
+<https://zakononline.ua/documents/show/178800___178865> and
+<https://zakononline.ua/documents/show/178799___178864>.
+
+## Current-profile checks
+
+Read complete statutory reproductions crediting Rada:
+
+- Article 44: <https://advoksglobal.com/ua/uk/law/law-551843/article-44/>,
+  text retrieved 25 October 2026. Small possession: **50–100** non-taxable
+  minimums, **20–60 hours** community work or **up to fifteen days** administrative
+  arrest, with voluntary-surrender exemption.
+- Article 309: <https://advoksglobal.com/ua/uk/law/criminal-code/article-309/>,
+  text retrieved 3 October 2026. Ordinary offence: fine 1,000–3,000 minimums,
+  corrective work up to two years, probation or restriction of liberty up to
+  five years. Group agreement, offending within a year after conviction under
+  the article, or large quantity: larger fine or up to three years' imprisonment.
+  Involving a minor or especially large quantity: five to eight years.
+- Article 310: <https://advoksglobal.com/ua/uk/law/criminal-code/article-310/>,
+  text retrieved 9 October 2026. Ordinary cultivation now offers fine 100–500
+  minimums, probation or restriction of liberty up to three years; the old
+  profile's arrest option is superseded. Aggravated three-to-seven-year prison
+  tier includes fifty or more cannabis plants and specified prior/group grounds.
+
+Compared articles 309/310 with the official Rada **7 September 2024** print
+reproduced by UNODC, downloaded in the preceding pass. Its relevant text agrees
+with the later reproductions. The current Rada bodies were not independently
+retrieved; these are statutory reproductions with explicit provenance limits.
+No claim about authentication or new 2026 legislation is made.
+
+Current possession, cultivation, enforcement and visitor wording now use inline
+citations and accurate sentencing choices. Small possession cannot be described
+as invariably ending in a fine. Updated the visitor paragraph to include the
+administrative arrest option as well. Other context and source records are
+preserved. The inherited 5 g summary was not independently re-audited here;
+preparation-specific quantity tables remain a follow-up.
+
+## What changed in the historical account
+
+**2009 was a tightening**, not the start of an administrative exception after
+continuous criminalisation. The missing **2008** amendment set the ordinary
+criminal threshold above 100 plants. The 2009 amendment then began the cannabis
+criminal tier at **ten** and reduced its aggravated threshold from **500 to 50**.
+It kept an administrative band below ten plants. The text's administrative
+"up to ten" wording is read alongside the explicit criminal "from ten" wording;
+exactly ten is not presented as a safe administrative allowance. Separate prior-
+crime and group-for-sale grounds remain relevant independently of plant count.
+
+The 2001 code's ordinary cultivation offence removed the 1995 repetition-after-
+administrative-penalty requirement. Its small personal possession position also
+changed: the separate old-code repeat offence was absent, and the 2002 court
+guidance directs small quantities into administrative article 44. The code's
+ordinary article 309 penalty does not mean every trace quantity became criminal.
+
+The 1995 scored event now represents its **mixed** reform, so it is `other`:
+cultivation eased while public use became a crime. Its title, description and
+tags cover both. The companion release order remains a context entry; its
+`unscored` reason now points to the scored underlying law instead of deferring
+a grow-law reconstruction already carried out here. Its adoption date remains
+an order date, not evidence of completed releases.
+
+## Scores and limits of reconstruction
+
+Current **possession 3→2** corrects the fine-only classification. `segments.yaml`
+defines 3 as at most an administrative fine; article 44 also permits custody.
+Score 2 places this administrative-but-custodial regime between a crime and the
+fine-only administrative tier. It does not label the offence criminal or change
+the `decriminalised` status. Other current scores are preserved. Exact total is
+now **20**, previously **22.5 (display 23)**.
+
+The possession component is **1 before the 2001 replacement** (criminal exposure
+under the old personal-possession/repeat provisions), then **2** under small-
+quantity administrative liability with arrest. This is a statutory classification,
+not a claim that most users were imprisoned. Earlier pre-1974 possession law is
+still not reconstructed, so the first 1934 aggregate remains provisional.
+
+Cultivation is **0 before the 1995 overhaul**, reflecting direct criminal
+exposure for the prohibited varieties in the 1974/1987 texts; **2 after the 1995
+administrative first tier**; **1 under the 2001 ordinary criminal rule**; and
+**2 after the 2008 threshold**. The 2009 threshold tightening remains unscored
+because the existing segment scale still classifies a few plants administratively;
+it does not award an extra point for the much larger 2008 cap. Likewise, the 2024
+probation amendment changes a sentencing choice without establishing a whole
+point of changed practice in enforcement; fines/restriction remain possible.
+
+Existing 1987, 1991 and 1995 snapshots are rebased for possession/cultivation;
+the 2024 medical snapshot is rebased only for the corrected possession score.
+The 1934 FREE `before` vector is unchanged. The 2001 mixed event is **flat in
+its total** because equal-weight possession and cultivation changes offset;
+its component scores do change. Never drop it merely because its aggregate
+movement is zero.
+
+Expected exact chain: **100→10.5 (1934), →9.5 (1987), →12.5 (1991), →16.5
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