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+# Cayman Islands history gap — 23 October 2026
+
+Seven events fill the gap between the estimated first restriction and the 2025
+referendum: the 1973 replacement law, 1977 penalties, 1978 forfeiture changes,
+2016 medical-extract reform, a producer's 2017 oil shipment, the June 2025 reform
+referral and July 2026 consultation. Two existing referendum/timetable entries
+were revised. Two articles explain the 1977 and 2016 changes. Six segment texts
+and six context blocks now use inline citations against the current statute and
+primary parliamentary or consultation materials.
+
+## Evidence actually read
+
+Downloads, full extractions, source metadata and scripts are retained locally in
+`tmp/history-cayman-gap-2026-10-23/`; exact URLs are in `sources.json`.
+
+- The official *Misuse of Drugs Act (2026 Revision)* was downloaded from GOV.KY
+ (`law.pdf/.txt`). Definitions, medical section 2A, offences in section 3,
+ penalties in section 16, relief/alternatives in sections 37–44, cannabis
+ schedule entries and the complete legislative-history table were examined.
+ The Act distinguishes statutory maxima from community service/attendance
+ options in specified cases. No claim that maximum prison terms describe
+ typical sentencing is made. Existing numeric enforcement calibration remains
+ a question for a broader sentencing-practice review.
+- UN document E/NL.1979/42–45 was recovered from the Digital Library's direct
+ download endpoint (`un-direct.pdf/.txt`). The alternative UN document API did
+ not return a PDF. The original 1973 law, including offences, sentencing and
+ cannabis definition, and the full 1977 and 1978 amendments were read. The
+ scanned 1977 penalty/mitigation page (PDF page 9) was visually checked.
+- The 1973 text supplies the original five-year first-possession ceiling and
+ ten-year repeat ceiling with hard labour. It replaces an earlier Dangerous
+ Drugs Law, so it is not evidence of Cayman's first cannabis restriction.
+ The earlier law itself was not recovered; the first-ban estimate stays.
+- In 1977, offences including cannabis possession below one pound carried up to
+ seven years for a first conviction; a repeat conviction carried five months
+ to seven years and a CI$5,000–15,000 fine. At one pound or more the first
+ conviction minimum was five months, with a repeat range of two to ten years.
+ The restriction on specified probation/sentencing powers was read in context.
+ The separate hard-drug schedule must not be applied to ordinary ganja.
+- The 1978 change concerns forfeiture, including vehicles and aircraft within
+ the original definition of vessel. It replaces the first-conviction discretion
+ and fixed CI$6,000 redemption provision with mandatory forfeiture on specified
+ findings and conditional restoration. An innocent-owner route and a separate
+ value-based payment route must not be collapsed into an automatic right to
+ reclaim the property.
+- Commencement dates for these laws come from the official 2026 legislative
+ history: 12 December 1973, 12 April 1977 and 4 July 1978. They are distinct
+ from the earlier assent dates printed on the 1977 and 1978 originals.
+- The published August 2016 medical-extract bill was downloaded from Parliament
+ (`bill.pdf/.txt`); its memorandum and all clauses were read. It is labelled a
+ proposal, not passed off as the original final Act. The final permission is
+ checked against the current Act, whose legislation history records enactment
+ on 24 October and commencement on 18 November 2016. The original final
+ amendment PDF could not be recovered from the old legislation server, which
+ returned errors. No bill-only additional condition is represented as enacted.
+- Cronos Group's full 29 August 2017 release was downloaded from PR Newswire
+ (`cronos.html/.txt`). This is a primary company account of its own completed
+ Peace Naturals shipment, buyer and pharmacy partner. It establishes neither
+ Cayman's first-ever medical import nor patient numbers, benefits or typical
+ access. Distributor pages were blocked; their snippets were not used.
+- Premier André Ebanks's complete written answer to Parliamentary Question 19,
+ dated 27 June 2025, was downloaded (`answer.pdf/.txt`). Its reported 55.64%
+ referendum support and promised reform referral replace the old Wikipedia
+ citation. The July 2026 paper separately dates Cabinet's referral to that day.
+- The election-office results PDF was downloaded but its district tables were
+ not fully reconciled. No independently calculated national vote totals or
+ denominator claims are added. The percentage is attributed to the premier.
+- The Law Reform Commission's full relevant sections 1–2, 4.2–4.3 and section
+ 10 of its 1 July 2026 paper were read. Its 30 grams dried / 150 grams wet,
+ four plants per household and expungement proposals are consultation options,
+ not enacted permissions. Reform rationale is attributed to the commission.
+- GOV.KY's complete 1 July consultation announcement and the relevant passage
+ in its 5 October report of the 2 October parliamentary sitting were read.
+ The latter expects a report and supporting legislation for government review
+ in November/December, not automatic legalisation at that time.
+
+## Scores, categories and unresolved history
+
+Current scores and classifications remain unchanged: possession 1, cultivation 1,
+enforcement 2, sharing 1, consumption 0, access 1; medical `limited`. The 2016
+medical event now carries access 0 → 1, reflecting the statutory prescription
+and authorised supply route. This removes its projection back into the estimated
+first restriction. The first estimated step becomes 100 → 10; the 2016 step is
+10 → 11. The 2017 shipment is a trade milestone, filed as culture with patients
+and trade tags, not a second score increase.
+
+The 1977 penalties refine an existing custodial regime; a separate numeric
+change would require more historical sentencing evidence and a reconstruction
+of intervening relief reforms. Its explicit unscored reason records this limit.
+The 1978 forfeiture amendment has an unscored reason because collateral property
+consequences do not change a whole personal-freedom segment. The 1973 replacement
+law is `other`, without treating it as a newly discovered first ban.
+
+Outstanding work includes the earlier Dangerous Drugs Law, the original final
+2016 amendment, intervening sentencing-relief amendments and sentencing practice.
+The 1977 article links those historical restrictions to the present alternatives
+without assigning an unverified introduction date to those alternatives.
+
+## Validation and commit isolation
+
+Both articles meet the writing rules: 406 and 393 words, four headings, valid
+inline citations and contextual history/profile links. The batch verifier checks
+categories, tags, source identities, citation keys, related links, all twelve
+profile citation blocks and unchanged current scores/statuses. The score-chain
+check flags no transitions.
+
+The production build passed: 3,864 pages in 38.78 seconds. Rendered checks cover
+80 citation links across all nine touched history pages, the profile's two
+reference scopes, eight tag
+pages, history exports and the profile API. Generated site output is deleted
+after verification. Source PDFs, logs and verification scripts are retained.
+
+The commit uses a temporary separate Git index to include only this batch's nine
+history objects, Cayman profile, two articles and this note. A semantic audit
+against the current parent commit verifies that other history objects are
+unchanged. Concurrent source-archive work and any unrelated staged or working
+changes are preserved.