Abkhazia cuts arrest for cannabis use to three days

Abkhazia cut administrative arrest for non-prescribed cannabis or hashish use to three days through a law dated 3 April 2023. Repeating the offence within a year brought ten days, while the ordinary first-offence penalty for other drugs remained fifteen days.^[1]

Deputies wanted a different cannabis penalty

The first-reading proposal in December 2022 had called for three days for cannabis use. Deputy Dmitry Marshania explained that the existing fifteen-day penalty applied regardless of which drug someone had used.^[2]

Members argued that marijuana should receive a lighter penalty than other drugs. Their draft paired the three-day first penalty with thirty days for repetition within a year.^[2]

The final wording used a ten-day repeat penalty for cannabis and hashish. It kept a separate fifteen-day first penalty and thirty-day repeat penalty for the other drug-use offence.^[1]

Three days still meant detention

The cannabis rule concerns taking the drug without a doctor’s order. It requires administrative arrest, so the shorter term still involves loss of liberty. The code expressly names marijuana and hashish, including cannabis resin.^[1]

It also prevents imposing repeat liability under the ordinary cannabis-use paragraph within fifteen days of the earlier liability decision. That restriction sits alongside the rule allowing a ten-day penalty for repetition within a year.^[1]

Seeking medical help had an exemption

A person who voluntarily approached a medical institution for help connected with illegal drug use was exempt from administrative liability under the article. The exemption was part of the same use rule.^[1]

For someone deciding to seek medical help, that provision addressed the administrative consequences of the use itself. Possessing drugs remained subject to a separate criminal offence, whose ordinary tier prescribed one to three years in prison.^[1][3]

Possession and supply kept separate rules

The drug-possession offence introduced in 2012 concerned holding or acquiring drugs without intent to supply. The Supreme Court’s 2025 guidance confirmed that the ordinary offence applied regardless of amount below the larger quantity tiers.^[3][4]

The same guidance treated gifts, loans and exchanges as supply, with criminal penalties. The shorter administrative arrest therefore operated alongside continuing offences for holding, growing and passing cannabis to another person.^[4][3]

The Abkhazia profile brings those distinctions together, including the three-day use rule, the ten-day repeat rule and the separate prison exposure.