Cannabis Freedom Index

Changelog a189f9atree, with Claude Opus 5.5

Seven new places: Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Turks and Caicos, Western Sahara

Places the tracker kept filing under another country (about 125 reports) get profiles of their own, scored relative to their parent and peers, unranked: - Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana: French overseas departments under French law, as Réunion, with local markets from the OFDT reports (herb from Saint Vincent and the Dominican Republic, prices, resin traded for cocaine) - New Caledonia (paka): CBD still a narcotic; the Congress's 2026–2030 hemp plan (deliberation 562 of 5 June 2026) - Cook Islands: own Narcotics and Misuse of Drugs Act, 20 years for growing; medicinal cannabis on prescription since 2 July 2024 - Turks and Caicos: Control of Drugs Ordinance, Class B, no medical route - Western Sahara (disputed): Morocco's 1974 law in the part it holds Population and UNODC rows follow the datasets' rules (latest census or INSEE reference population; regional median, Morocco's figure for Western Sahara).

7 places added2 datasets updated2 files of code, design or docs +1,176 −4 lines

Score changes 7 places

  1. French Guiana new14
  2. Guadeloupe new14
  3. Martinique new14
  4. Western Sahara new13
  5. Cook Islands new12
  6. New Caledonia new11
  7. Turks and Caicos Islands new11

Countries and states 7 files

Datasets 2

Code, design and documents 2 files

docs/DATA-MAINTENANCE.md +6 −4
@@ -1013,10 +1013,12 @@ country's History section, labelled with its state, and on the state's own page.
 - **`estimate: true`** (with an optional `window: [from, to]`) marks a first restriction whose
   date is unknown. Replace these with a dated law whenever one is found.
-- **`country`** may also be a disputed territory (`xa`, `xn`, `xs`, `xt`). Its entries show on its
+- **`country`** may also be a disputed territory (`eh`, `xa`, `xn`, `xs`, `xt`). Its entries show on its
   page and in the history list, but its scored changes never move the world average.
 - **Dependencies with laws of their own** have their own profiles where they matter enough:
   Jersey (`je`), Guernsey (`gg`), the Isle of Man (`im`), Bermuda (`bm`), the Cayman Islands
-  (`ky`), Gibraltar (`gi`) and the British Virgin Islands (`vg`) under the UK, and Greenland (`gl`)
-  and the Faroe Islands (`fo`) under Denmark, French Polynesia (`pf`) under France, and Puerto Rico
+  (`ky`), Gibraltar (`gi`), the British Virgin Islands (`vg`) and the Turks and Caicos Islands (`tc`)
+  under the UK, the Cook Islands (`ck`) in free association with New Zealand, and Greenland (`gl`)
+  and the Faroe Islands (`fo`) under Denmark, French Polynesia (`pf`), New Caledonia (`nc`),
+  Réunion (`re`), Guadeloupe (`gp`), Martinique (`mq`) and French Guiana (`gf`) under France, and Puerto Rico
   (`pr`), Guam (`gu`), the Northern Mariana Islands (`mp`) and the US Virgin Islands (`vi`) under
   the United States. A profile marks this with
@@ -1026,5 +1028,5 @@ country's History section, labelled with its state, and on the state's own page.
 - **A place without a profile of its own** goes under the country that answers for it
   internationally: the Falklands and the other British Overseas Territories under `gb`; French
-  overseas territories such as New Caledonia under `fr`; American Samoa under `us`. Leaving `country` out files the entry as
+  overseas places such as Mayotte or Saint-Martin under `fr`; American Samoa under `us`. Leaving `country` out files the entry as
   International, which is only for treaties, UN decisions and other events that belong to no one
   country. Such entries are normally context entries: they must not move the profile's scores.

docs/research/territories-2026-11-15.md +47 −0
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# New territory profiles: research notes (15 November 2026)
+
+Profiles written: Martinique (mq), Guadeloupe (gp), French Guiana (gf), Cook Islands (ck),
+Turks and Caicos (tc), Western Sahara (eh), New Caledonia (nc). Model: countries/re.yaml
+(dependency: {of, kind, note}); Western Sahara as `disputed` (like xs). The tracker then needs
+`npm run countries:sync` and about 125 reports re-filed (mq 43, gp 37, ck 16, eh 10, nc 7, yt 3,
+mf 3, gf 1, bl 1; Turks and Caicos 2 wrongly filed as bs). Map: mq/gp/gf have no world-atlas
+shape (drawn with France, like re); ck, tc, eh, nc have shapes.
+
+## French departments (gp, mq, gf): French national law, as countries/re.yaml cites (csp, cidj, sp_use, sp, cx, onisr)
+- Guadeloupe — OFDT note, June 2026 (https://www.ofdt.fr/publication/2026/drogues-et-conduites-addictives-en-guadeloupe-2691):
+  herb grown locally or imported from neighbouring islands, the Dominican Republic most cited; herb
+  the most accessible illegal product; lowest price 4 €/g (20 € for 5 g), about half the mainland
+  price, joints from 2 €; resin rarer, mainly from mainland France (Moroccan origin), sometimes
+  bartered; strains "skunk", "creepy", "bata skunk"; 2021 adult use in the year lower than mainland.
+- Martinique — OFDT note, August 2024, 2022 data (https://www.ofdt.fr/publication/2024/pratiques-d-usages-et-prise-en-charge-des-usagers-de-drogues-en-martinique-en-2022):
+  herb market very dynamic, seized herb mostly from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, local production
+  too; no local resin, resin from Morocco via mainland France, bartered 1–2.5 kg resin per kg of
+  cocaine (2021); 10 € buys 6–8 g of herb or 1 g of resin (Paris 2022: 7–10 €/g herb).
+- French Guiana — OFDT OUDOM report, July 2025 (https://www.ofdt.fr/publication/2025/drogues-et-conduites-addictives-en-guyane-en-2024-2549):
+  cannabis mostly herb, widely available from local production and imports; resin market growing,
+  from Morocco via Europe, exchanged for cocaine; Cayenne airport controls reinforced from 2022
+  (mules carry cocaine); 2014 regular cannabis use 3.8%.
+
+## Cook Islands
+- Narcotics and Misuse of Drugs Act 2004 (PacLII refused automated reads; read by hand):
+  possession up to 2 years / $5,000 (as High Court sentencing notes describe); cultivation up to
+  20 years; utensils up to 5 years / $5,000. 2009 amendment reportedly allows regulations licensing
+  medicinal cultivation (Cook Islands News letter, 15 May 2023, https://cookislandsnews.com/?p=257084);
+  none enacted then. 30+ plants seized in Arorangi, October 2021 (https://cookislandsnews.com/?p=232673).
+
+## Turks and Caicos
+- Control of Drugs Ordinance 1976, revised laws 03.14 (https://gov.tc/agc/2021-revised-laws);
+  cannabis Class B; possession 3 years/$40,000 summary, 7 years on indictment; intent to supply
+  4 years/$50,000 summary, 15 years on indictment (Wikipedia, citing the ordinance; verify in text).
+  No medical or decriminalisation law found.
+
+## New Caledonia (paka)
+- Deliberation 562 of 5 June 2026 on the hemp sector strategic plan (juridoc.gouv.nc), text extracted.
+- CBD listed as a narcotic like THC; January 2024 Congress motions to remove it (LNC, https://www.lnc.nc/print/1423451).
+- Camp-Est smuggling case: 536 g, two years' prison, October 2026 (https://www.lnc.nc/print/1432390).
+- Still needed: the use/possession article of the "ancien code de la santé publique applicable en NC" and penalties.
+
+## Western Sahara
+- Morocco holds about 70% (all cities, coast), Polisario about 30% (Wikipedia). Moroccan 1974 law
+  (cite as in countries/ma.yaml). 12 t resin incinerated in Laayoune, 1 July 2020; about 6 t
+  seized at Oum Dreyga, 13 February 2022 (Morocco World News). No source on Polisario-zone law.

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