Cuba lets judges fine cannabis holders instead of imprisoning them

A Cuban amendment published in June 1994 gave judges an express fine option for simple cannabis possession. The penalty became six months to two years in prison, a fine of 200–500 quotas, or both. The earlier wording of the possession offence had listed imprisonment alone.^[1][2]

Cannabis received its own penalty band

The code that took effect in 1988 had used one simple-possession offence for toxic drugs and substances with similar effects. Its six-month-to-two-year prison range covered cannabis alongside other drugs.^[2]

The 1994 amendment separated those drugs into three penalty bands. Cannabis kept the existing prison range and gained the fine option. Cocaine and substances with similar or stronger effects carried one to three years, a fine of 300–1,000 quotas, or both. The remaining drugs had a lower band of three months to one year, a fine of 100–300 quotas, or both.^[1]

The financial alternatives therefore accompanied a more detailed distinction between substances. Cannabis was expressly named in the middle band.^[1]

A fine could accompany prison

For a person found with cannabis, the alternatives mattered: the offence now allowed a court to impose a fine on its own. It also allowed the fine and prison together. The rule continued to cover possession without the required authorisation or medical prescription.^[1]

Simple possession remained separate from the offence covering possession with the purpose of trafficking. That distinction was already present in the original code, which also punished supplying drugs to another person and growing cannabis.^[2]

Supply faced a separate escalation

In March 1999, Cuba rewrote its main drug-supply offence. Ordinary trafficking and cannabis growing carried four to ten years. Relatively large quantities brought eight to twenty years, while specified aggravated circumstances carried fifteen to thirty years or death.^[3]

Those circumstances included involvement in international trafficking, officials abusing their position and the use of someone under sixteen. The simple-possession band continued in its own article with the fine option introduced in 1994.^[1][3]

The cannabis band survived the next code

The 2022 Penal Code retained six months to two years, 200–500 quotas, or both for simple possession of cannabis or its derivatives. It set out cultivation and supply in another article with their own higher ranges.^[4]

For cannabis holders, the choice between a fine and imprisonment first appeared in this offence’s 1994 wording and continued into the law described in the Cuba profile.^[1][4]