Context pages: a two-paragraph introduction per topic with links and citations

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: UNODC — World Drug Report 2026, statistical annex
+    url: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2026-annex.html
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+How a cannabis law is enforced shows in the numbers of people it reaches: arrests, recorded offences, convictions and prisoners. These sections give the published counts for each country, with their year and source, and say what they include. Many countries report drug offences to the UN drugs office, whose [World Drug Report](https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2026-annex.html) collects them.[@1]
+
+The figures are rarely comparable. Some count arrests, some cases, some only convictions; some separate cannabis from other drugs and possession from supply, many do not. Read together with the [score for enforcement](/map/enforcement/) and the [outside datasets](/sources/#datasets) on police contact and offences, they show whether a harsh law is applied or left on the books.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: UNODC — World Drug Report 2026, statistical annex
+    url: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2026-annex.html
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+In most of the world cannabis is bought illegally, and the illegal market is what most users actually meet. These sections describe its size where estimates exist, where the cannabis comes from, what it costs and how openly it is sold. The UN drugs office's [World Drug Report](https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2026-annex.html) publishes the country figures on use and seizures that much of this rests on.[@1]
+
+Some supply routes are old and famous. [Morocco's](/country/ma/) Rif has supplied hashish to Europe since the 1960s, and a survey [in 2003](/history/morocco-cultivation-survey-2003/) found 134,000 hectares under cannabis; the [craft and its hybrids](/culture/traditions/rif-hashish-craft/) have their own entry. For the wider picture see [the illegal drug trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_drug_trade).

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Cannabis social club
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_social_club
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+A cannabis club is a non-profit association whose members grow cannabis together and share the harvest, with no shop and no profit. The model grew up in [Spain](/country/es/), where the [social clubs](/culture/traditions/cannabis-social-clubs/) operate in a grey zone: the Supreme Court [convicted organisers in 2015](/history/spain-supreme-court-clubs-2015/), leaving the clubs tolerated but unprotected. An overview is in [cannabis social club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_social_club).[@1]
+
+Some countries have since written clubs into law. [Uruguay](/country/uy/) made them one of the [three legal routes in 2013](/history/uruguay-legalisation-2013/), [Malta](/country/mt/) made [licensed associations](/history/malta-legalisation-2021/) the only supply besides home growing, and [German associations](/history/germany-cultivation-associations-2024/) of up to 500 members became legal in July 2024. The map shows where clubs are regulated, tolerated, underground or unknown.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Expungement
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expungement
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+A cannabis conviction often costs more than its sentence. A criminal record can close jobs, licences, travel and housing; some countries keep separate drug registers, take away driving licences or deport foreigners. These sections describe what follows a person beyond the punishment itself, in each country.
+
+Some governments have begun to undo it. In 2022 the US president [pardoned everyone convicted of simple possession](/history/us-biden-pardons-2022/) under federal law, and [South Africa's](/country/za/) [Cannabis for Private Purposes Act](/history/south-africa-private-purposes-act-2024/) provides for wiping old convictions for use and possession once it takes effect. Clearing records is known in many places as [expungement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expungement).[@1]

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Cannabis culture
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_culture
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Cannabis laws were written over older customs: [bhang at Holi](/culture/traditions/bhang-at-holi/), the [Rastafari sacrament](/culture/traditions/rastafari-sacrament/), Morocco's [kif pipe](/culture/traditions/kif-and-the-sebsi/) and [maâjoun](/culture/traditions/maajoun/), the words people have for the plant from [ganja](/culture/language/ganja/) to [rongony](/culture/language/rongony/). These sections tell how cannabis sits in each country's life: its customs, faiths, words, music and festivals, and what prohibition did to them. See also [cannabis culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_culture).[@1]
+
+The [cultural atlas](/culture/) holds the entries themselves, and each section links to those that belong to the country. Where the law made an exception for a custom, as India did for [bhang in 1961](/history/india-bhang-exemption-1961/), the section says so.

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: "Harm Reduction International — The death penalty for drug offences (special focus page, citing The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2025)"
+    url: https://hri.global/special-focus/death-penalty/
+  - type: law
+    title: United Nations — Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol
+    url: https://www.unodc.org/pdf/convention_1961_en.pdf
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+A few countries still allow execution for cannabis, almost always for trafficking rather than use. Harm Reduction International counts 36 countries that keep the death penalty for drug offences and more than 1,200 people executed for them in 2025.[@1] The international drug treaties do not require it: the [Single Convention](https://www.unodc.org/pdf/convention_1961_en.pdf) asks for penal provisions but leaves the punishment to each state.[@2] For the background see [capital punishment for drug trafficking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_for_drug_trafficking).
+
+The law and the practice differ. [Singapore](/country/sg/) made trafficking more than 500 g of cannabis a capital offence [in 1990](/history/singapore-cannabis-death-penalty-1990/) and [hanged a man for it in 2023](/history/singapore-tangaraju-execution-2023/); [Iran](/country/ir/) [raised its thresholds in 2017](/history/iran-death-threshold-raised-2017/) so that cannabis now needs 50 kg. The map marks every country whose law provides for death, and each profile says whether it is used.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Drug-impaired driving
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug-impaired_driving
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Countries convict drivers who have used cannabis in very different ways. Some must prove the driver was impaired; some set a fixed limit of THC in the blood; some punish any detectable trace. [Germany](/country/de/), for example, [set a limit of 3.5 nanograms per millilitre](/history/germany-driving-limit-2024/) of blood serum in August 2024, with no cannabis at all for novice drivers. An overview is in [drug-impaired driving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug-impaired_driving).[@1]
+
+These sections say what the law needs to convict, and the map sorts countries from an impairment test to a zero-tolerance rule. The difference matters most where cannabis is legal or prescribed, because a driver can be within the drug law and still break the driving rule.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Landrace
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landrace
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Wherever cannabis was grown for generations, farmers kept local plants adapted to their land, known as [landraces](/culture/language/landrace/). Prohibition, eradication and the spread of imported hybrids have threatened many of them. In [Morocco's](/country/ma/) Rif the old kif plant was largely replaced by [high-yielding hybrids](/culture/traditions/rif-hashish-craft/), until the regulator [authorised the local beldiya variety](/history/morocco-beldiya-authorised-2024/) for the legal programme in 2024. A general account of the idea is in [landrace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landrace).[@1]
+
+These sections describe each country's local cannabis, the people who keep it, and what bans and new laws did to it. They are written only where sources say something specific about the country's plants.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: European Commission, Agriculture and rural development — Hemp
+    url: https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/farming/crop-productions-and-plant-based-products/hemp_en
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Hemp is cannabis grown for fibre, seed and, increasingly, CBD, and the law separates it from the drug by a THC limit. In the European Union hemp must not exceed 0.3% THC and be grown from varieties in the EU catalogue; it goes into textiles, food, building materials, paper and cosmetics.[@1] The [United States](/country/us/) adopted the same 0.3% line [in 2018](/history/us-farm-bill-2018/), as did [China's](/country/cn/) [Yunnan province in 2010](/history/china-yunnan-hemp-2010/), while [Czechia](/country/cz/) [raised its limit to 1% in 2022](/history/czechia-hemp-one-percent-2022/).
+
+The line is under strain. Semi-synthetic compounds such as [HHC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexahydrocannabinol) were sold openly as legal alternatives until countries began to ban them: [Denmark in 2023](/history/denmark-hhc-banned-2023/), [Germany in 2024](/history/germany-hhc-banned-2024/), [Czechia](/history/czechia-hhc-banned-2026/) and the [Netherlands](/history/netherlands-hhc-banned-2026/) in 2026. These sections describe each country's THC limit, its rules for CBD, and loophole products; for the oldest use of the plant see [hemp and the beginnings of paper](/culture/traditions/early-chinese-hemp-paper/).

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Medical cannabis
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannabis
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Medical cannabis came back into law through the side door of state and national exceptions. California's [Proposition 215](/history/us-california-medical-1996/) let patients with a doctor's recommendation possess and grow it in 1996; [Germany](/country/de/) let doctors [prescribe flower and extracts in 2017](/history/germany-medical-2017/), paid for by health insurers after approval. In 2020 the UN [took cannabis out of its strictest schedule](/history/un-cannabis-rescheduled-2020/) for drugs with little medical value, without changing the duty to prohibit other use. See also [medical cannabis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannabis).[@1]
+
+A medical law on paper is not the same as access. These sections say who qualifies, who may prescribe, what forms are sold and what they cost, and the map counts a programme as established only where patients are actually treated, not where research or export licences alone exist.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Legality of cannabis
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Seeds and cuttings fall between the cracks of drug laws, and countries treat them very differently. [Italy's](/country/it/) highest court held [in 2012](/history/italy-seeds-ruling-2012/) that offering seeds for sale is not a crime, and in the United States the drug agency wrote [in 2022](/history/us-dea-seed-letter-2022/) that seeds within the hemp definition are not federally controlled. Elsewhere seeds are banned outright, as cannabis.
+
+Where adults may grow at home, how they get seeds becomes part of the law: [Morocco's](/country/ma/) legal programme [imported its first seeds in 2023](/history/morocco-first-seeds-2023/). These sections give four statuses each: whether seeds and clones may be held and planted, and whether they may be sold. The figures differ widely between countries; see the overview of [the legality of cannabis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis).[@1]

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Cannabis industry
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_industry
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+A legal cannabis industry exists where the state licenses people to grow, process and sell for profit. [Canada](/country/ca/) built a national market of licensed producers and shops [in 2018](/history/canada-cannabis-act-2018/); [Uruguay](/country/uy/) kept production under state licence, and its [pharmacies began selling in 2017](/history/uruguay-pharmacy-sales-2017/). [Morocco](/country/ma/) [licensed medical and industrial cannabis in 2021](/history/morocco-law-13-21-2021/), with growers in cooperatives in the [Rif](/culture/traditions/rif-hashish-craft/). See also [the cannabis industry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_industry).[@1]
+
+Most countries allow less: licensed production for medicine only, or for hemp only, or nothing at all. These sections say who may produce, on what terms and for whom, and the map shades countries from an open adult market to no legal production.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Government of the Netherlands — Toleration policy regarding soft drugs and coffee shops
+    url: https://www.government.nl/topics/drugs/toleration-policy-regarding-soft-drugs-and-coffee-shops
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Adult use is legal in only a handful of countries, and each did it differently. [Uruguay](/country/uy/) was [first, in 2013](/history/uruguay-legalisation-2013/), putting the whole chain under the state; [Canada](/country/ca/) [followed in 2018](/history/canada-cannabis-act-2018/) with licensed shops; [Malta](/country/mt/) chose [non-profit associations in 2021](/history/malta-legalisation-2021/); [Germany](/country/de/) [legalised possession and home growing in 2024](/history/germany-cannabis-act-2024/) without shops. An overview is in [the legality of cannabis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis).
+
+Elsewhere use is tolerated or decriminalised rather than legal. In the [Netherlands](/country/nl/) selling small amounts in a [coffeeshop](/culture/traditions/the-coffeeshop/) is still an offence that prosecutors do not pursue, within rules on nuisance, minors, advertising and a limit of 5 grams per sale.[@1] These sections describe how adults actually get cannabis in each country, legally or not.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Cannabinoid
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Modern cannabis science began with chemistry done under prohibition: in Israel, [Raphael Mechoulam](/culture/people/raphael-mechoulam/) [isolated THC in 1964](/history/israel-mechoulam-thc-1964/) from hashish supplied by the police. Later work on the plant's [cannabinoids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid) and the body's own receptors grew from there.[@1] Yet because cannabis sits in the strictest treaty schedules, scientists in many countries still need special licences to obtain it, and in some there is no legal route at all.
+
+These sections say who studies cannabis in each country, what they found and what the law allows researchers to do. The map shows where research is open, licensed, restricted to narrow routes or blocked. On the advice of the World Health Organization, the UN [moved cannabis out of its most restrictive schedule in 2020](/history/un-cannabis-rescheduled-2020/).

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Wikipedia — Legality of cannabis
+    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Some things about cannabis in a country fit no other heading: a famous market street, an unusual institution, a place where the law and the custom part ways. Spotlights collect them, one short story each. They are the places and practices the scores cannot show, such as Copenhagen's [Pusher Street](/culture/traditions/pusher-street/) or India's [licensed bhang shops](/culture/traditions/licensed-bhang-shops/).
+
+Few countries have spotlights yet, and the map shows which. For the legal picture behind them, see each country's profile, or the overview of [the legality of cannabis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis) around the world.[@1]

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+sources:
+  - title: Government of the Netherlands — Toleration policy regarding soft drugs and coffee shops
+    url: https://www.government.nl/topics/drugs/toleration-policy-regarding-soft-drugs-and-coffee-shops
+model: opus-5.5
+written: 2026-10-28
+---
+
+Legal cannabis is often for residents only. [Uruguay](/country/uy/) [opened its three routes](/history/uruguay-legalisation-2013/) only to registered residents, and [Germany](/country/de/) requires [six months' residence](/history/germany-cannabis-act-2024/) to grow at home or join an association. In the [Netherlands](/country/nl/), the country best known for [cannabis tourism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_tourism), only residents have been permitted in coffee shops since 1 January 2013, though municipalities decide how strictly to enforce it.[@1] The rule was [first enforced in the south in 2012](/history/netherlands-residents-only-2012/).
+
+These sections say whether someone who does not live in a country can get cannabis legally, and what happens to a foreigner who is caught. Taking cannabis across a border is a separate, heavier offence almost everywhere, including between two places where it is legal.

@@ -417,3 +417,15 @@ const glossary = defineCollection({
 });
 
-export const collections = { countries, units, segments, changes, prices, articles, culture, datasets, glossary };
+// An introduction to each context topic for its page across every country (/context/<topic>/):
+// context/<key>.md, two short paragraphs with links and inline citations ([@n] into `sources`).
+// What a country link or a history link says rests on that page; the rest on the sources.
+const contextIntros = defineCollection({
+  loader: glob({ base: "./context", pattern: "*.md" }),
+  schema: z.object({
+    sources: z.array(source).min(1),
+    model: z.string().min(1).optional(),
+    written: z.coerce.date().optional(),
+  }).strict(),
+});
+
+export const collections = { countries, units, segments, changes, prices, articles, culture, datasets, glossary, contextIntros };

@@ -8,4 +8,8 @@ import ContextMenu from "../../components/ContextMenu.astro";
 import { contextTopics, mapFill } from "../../lib/contexts.js";
 import { siteMap } from "../../lib/world-map.js";
+import { getEntry, render } from "astro:content";
+import { references } from "../../lib/cite.js";
+import { sourceTuple } from "../../lib/sources.js";
+import References from "../../components/References.astro";
 import { tierColor } from "../../lib/tiers.js";
 
@@ -15,4 +19,9 @@ export function getStaticPaths() {
 
 const { topic } = Astro.props;
+// the topic's introduction (context/<key>.md), with its references numbered in the order cited
+const intro = await getEntry("contextIntros", topic.key);
+const { Content: Intro, remarkPluginFrontmatter } = intro ? await render(intro) : {};
+const refs = references("ref");
+if (intro) for (const i of remarkPluginFrontmatter.citeOrder ?? []) refs.cite(sourceTuple(intro.data.sources[i - 1]));
 const base = import.meta.env.BASE_URL;
 const map = siteMap();
@@ -50,4 +59,6 @@ const description = `${topic.name} in every country: ${topic.help.charAt(0).toLo
     </section>
 
+    {Intro && <div class="prose ctxp-intro"><Intro /></div>}
+
     <dl class="hist-stats ctxp-stats">
       {figures.map(([n, label]) => <div><dt>{label}</dt><dd>{n}</dd></div>)}
@@ -145,4 +156,5 @@ const description = `${topic.name} in every country: ${topic.help.charAt(0).toLo
     </section>
 
+    {intro && <References refs={refs} archive />}
   </main>
 </Base>

@@ -3514,2 +3514,5 @@ a.ctx-topic:hover { text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-thickness: 1px;
 .ctxp-menu a[aria-current] { color: var(--text); border-bottom-color: var(--text); }
 @media (min-width: 900px) { .ctxp-menu ol { flex-wrap: wrap; overflow: visible; mask-image: none; padding-right: 0; column-gap: 20px; } }
+/* the topic's introduction under its title */
+.ctxp-intro { max-width: 72ch; margin: 18px 0 8px; }
+.prose.ctxp-intro > p, .prose.ctxp-intro > p:first-child { font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.6; color: var(--text); }