history(ge): add scored 1974 Soviet possession step; article for 2015 judgment

Beka Tsikarishvili was accused of buying and possessing In 2015, a Georgian man caught with 69 grams of dried marijuana. Under article 260(2) of Georgia's Criminal Code that was a "large quantity", and the penalty was imprisonment for faced seven to fifteen years or more. On 5 May 2014 he lodged a complaint within prison — and talked the Constitutional Court into striking the sentence down. The First Chamber gave judgment on 24 October 2015. ## The question The complaintBeka Tsikarishvili's case did not ask the court to legalise anythingfor legalisation. It challenged the words that set the prison term,asked whether locking someone up for a personal stash was a constitutionally tolerable punishment. The answer redrew Georgian drug law. ## Sixty-nine grams and fifteen years Tsikarishvili had been charged under article 17Article 260(2) of the ConstitutionCriminal Code, which prohibits torturepunished purchase and cruelpossession of dried marijuana in large quantities with seven to fifteen years' imprisonment. He did not dispute that his 69 grams were illegal, inhuman or degrading punishmentnor did he demand general decriminalisation — his claim said so expressly. While the caseHis argument was pending, Parliament cut the penaltynarrower: for the same conduct to five to eight yearspossession for personal use, with no purpose of sale, a multi-year prison term was grossly disproportionate. The court held that it could still rule, becauseprovision dated from the new wording repeatedSoviet inheritance — possession without intent to sell had been a crime since the substance of the old[1974 union decree](/history/georgia-soviet-possession-crime-1974/) — hardened by post-independence sentencing. ## The reasoning The court said that imprisonment is not in itself inhumanagrees, butwith a clearly disproportionate sentence can be. It then looked at whomdissent On 24 October 2015 the act endangerscourt upheld the claim. The wording imposing seven to fifteen years for personal- Using marijuana "might have negative effect on human health"use possession of up to 70 grams, but the harm is lighter than that ofjudgment held, violated the so-called strong drugs. - Punishing a person for an act that can endanger only their own health is "aimless". - No inevitable link between marijuanaconstitutional ban on inhuman and other crimes had been proveddegrading punishment. - The state may set criminal liability where the quantity makes distribution objectively inevitableruling was final and unappealable, but 69 grams "cannot a priori be considered" an amountthough not meant for personal useunanimous — a dissenting opinion is recorded alongside it. Two sentences carry The score moved from 9 to 14 on the argument. "A human shall not be an instrumentstrength of criminal policy and a tool for fight against crime." Andthat single holding: prison was off the state may not punish someone "onlytable for deterring others from committing the same act"personal amounts. ## The ruling | Point | Content | |---|---| | What was struck down | imprisonment asdecade it opened Tsikarishvili became the first in a punishmentsequence. In December 2016 the court voided imprisonment for buying and possessing, for personal use, dried marijuana use itself; in November 2017 it ended criminal penalties for consumption; and on 30 July 2018 it abolished even the disputed quantityadministrative fines, "upholding that consumption is protected by the right to 70 grams" | | Constitutional basis | article 17(2) | | Effect | in force from its announcement; final, with no appeal | Judge Merab Turava dissented in partfree personality. He agreed thatGeorgia became the penalty was disproportionate but thought the court should have struck down only severely disproportionate termsfirst former communist state with legal recreational use — until parliament reversed course in 2025, not imprisonment of any lengthbringing prison back for possession over five grams. ## What it left alone Buying and possessing marijuana stayed That reversal is a crimeseparate entry; only prison was removed as the answerdecade between belongs to it for amounts up to 70 grams. Use, growinga 69-gram stash and larger quantities were outside the caseman who refused to serve fifteen years for it. The court dealt with those in later judgments, on [use in 2017Georgia profile](/historycountry/georgia-consumption-2017ge/) and [again in 2018](/history/georgia-constitutional-court-2018/). ## Whyfollows the index moved Possession rises from 1line to 2: holding up to 70 grams for oneself is still an offence, but it can no longer lead to prison. Enforcement rises from 1 to 2 for the same reasonpresent. Nothing else changes. The total moves from 9 to 14.

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Wikipedia — Drug policy of the Soviet Union Wikipedia — Cannabis in Georgia (country) 1 unchanged