Cannabis Freedom Index

Changelog 9c03d24

history: add Jamaica 1941 mandatory-prison article; re-source entry

1 history entry edited1 article written1 file of code, design or docs +94 −15 lines

History changes.yaml

Edited 1

Jamaica makes prison mandatory for ganja

description

Amid the economic distress and mass demonstrations of 1938, and the rise of Rastafari and American anti-marijuana publicity, Jamaica made prison compulsory for a first conviction for possessing, selling or growing ganja: up to one year, with no option of a fine, aimed chiefly at Rastafari cultivators and up to two years for a secondusers. Any amount[@1, however small, was taken to imply possible intent to sell.2] A 1972 amendment removed mandatory imprisonment and restored judicial discretion.[@1,2]

sources

V. J. Hanson — Jamaica's experience, in Legalizing Cannabis: Experiences, Lessons and Scenarios (2020) Wikipedia — Cannabis in Jamaica Ganja in Jamaica: The Effects of Marijuana Use 1 unchanged

Articles and atlas entries 1

Code, design and documents 1 file

docs/research/history-jamaica-1941-2026-10-26.md +54 −0
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+# Research pass: Jamaica 1941 mandatory-prison article; entry re-sourced
+
+Research checked on 26 October 2026. The Jamaica 1941 entry — previously
+sourced but without a single inline citation — gains per-sentence markers
+and a stronger source set, plus a new article. No scores, profiles or
+timelines changed.
+
+## What was verified (all sources actually read)
+
+- V. J. Hanson, "Jamaica's experience", in Legalizing Cannabis:
+  Experiences, Lessons and Scenarios (2020), printed pp. 376–378 (PDF via
+  cannalib.eu, found through the HRI study's footnote 3): 1913 ordinance
+  (£100/12 months, Hague ratification, evangelical alarm at East Indian
+  ganja smoking); Depression-era global tightening reaching Jamaica;
+  Rastafari/Maroon targeting; 1941 amendment's mandatory one-year term for
+  cultivation, possession and use; post-colonial retention and 1964 raid
+  powers; 1972 removal of mandatory sentencing with releases. Hanson cites
+  Rubin & Comitas (1975) throughout for the historical claims.
+- HRI Jamaica case study 2025 (PDF, read in extracted text): 1913
+  criminalisation; 1941 one-year term for possession, use, cultivation;
+  Rastafari/Maroon impact; 1972 amendment; prison doubling 1972–2014;
+  15,000 arrests and ~$64M costs in 2014.
+- New `articles/jamaica-mandatory-prison-1941.md` (~380w body, 4 sections,
+  both sources). Entry `jamaica-mandatory-prison-1941` repaired: Wikipedia
+  replaced by Hanson as [@1], HRI kept as [@2] with a locator, Rubin kept
+  as [@3], per-sentence markers throughout.
+
+Claim boundaries (trimmed, recorded): the old text's "American
+anti-marijuana publicity", "up to two years for a second" offence and
+"any amount implies intent to sell" were cut — Hanson verifies the
+Depression-era global tightening and the mandatory one-year term but not
+those specifics, and the Rubin pages were not re-read this pass. Rubin &
+Comitas was accordingly removed from the entry's sources (an uncited
+third source fails the build); re-reading Rubin ch. 3/appendix II would
+be the way to restore the trimmed specifics. Three YAML-colon breaks
+were fixed along the way (Hanson and HRI titles in changes.yaml and the
+article front matter now quoted).
+
+## Dead ends and parks recorded, not forced
+
+- Rubin & Comitas full text and "The Law Against Ganja in Jamaica" are
+  borrow-restricted on archive.org (401 on the OCR endpoint); not forced.
+- Kazakhstan 1934 article skipped: the Uzbek 1934 piece already covers the
+  decree in depth and names Kazakhstan as covered.
+
+## Verification and files
+
+- `node -e` YAML load of changes.yaml clean before build.
+- `npm run build`, `npm run history:test`, `npm run answers:test` green;
+  rendered `/history/jamaica-mandatory-prison-1941/` citation marks
+  checked.
+- Commit limited to own work: the Jamaica 1941 hunk in changes.yaml, the
+  new article, this note, via pathspec. Foreign staged/worktree files
+  excluded and preserved.

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