The story · written by grok-4.7,
From 2 January 1990, ganja or any herbal cannabis carried six months to three years in prison up to 5 kilograms, and three to fifteen years above that weight.[1] Cannabis resin above 2 kilograms, and tetrahydrocannabinol above 10 grams, carried death or life imprisonment.[1]
Licensed ganja, then a single narcotics act
Ganja had been grown under licence and sold in approved shops, a holdover from colonial excise law. Cultivation was prohibited in 1987 and sales in 1989. The Narcotics Control Act, dated 1 February 1990, is deemed to have been in force since 2 January 1990.[1] It repealed the Opium Acts of 1857 and 1878, the Excise Act of 1909, the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1930 and the Opium Smoking Act of 1932, and it also repealed a narcotics ordinance of 1989.[1] Work already done under that ordinance was treated as done under the new act.[1]
What people could no longer do
For a narcotic other than alcohol, the act prohibited cultivation, production, processing, carrying, transport, import, export, supply, buying, selling, keeping, storing, displaying and use.[1] The same ban covered a plant or substance used to produce a narcotic.[1] A licence could still cover production and trade when the drug was needed to prepare a medicine approved under an act, or for scientific research, and a pass could cover carrying or transport.[1]
The prison terms
The penalty table applies to those dealings other than cultivation. A fine is added to each of these bands. Someone convicted again, where the offence is not already death or life imprisonment, gets twice the maximum.[1]
| Substance | Amount | Prison |
|---|---|---|
| Ganja or any herbal cannabis | Up to 5 kilograms | 6 months to 3 years |
| Ganja or any herbal cannabis | Above 5 kilograms | 3 to 15 years |
| A cannabis plant of any species | Up to 25 plants | 6 months to 3 years |
| A cannabis plant of any species | More than 25 plants | 3 to 15 years |
| Cannabis resin, with opium | Up to 2 kilograms | 2 to 10 years |
| Cannabis resin, with opium | Above 2 kilograms | Death or life imprisonment |
| Tetrahydrocannabinol, with pethidine and morphine | Up to 10 grams | 2 to 10 years |
| Tetrahydrocannabinol, with pethidine and morphine | Above 10 grams | Death or life imprisonment |
Replaced in 2018
The 2018 narcotics act replaced this one. Herbal cannabis became a Class B drug, with six months to five years up to 5 kilograms, and hashish was classed with the Class A drugs. The current account of Bangladeshi law is on the country profile.
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Bangladesh here.
References
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.