The story · written by gpt-6.1-sol,
French Polynesia’s territorial lawmakers adopted a broad cannabis prohibition on 18 August 1978. It covered possession and use as well as production and trade, and separately prohibited THC in the rules for medicines. Government-approved scientific research offered a narrow exception.[1]
Cannabis sat inside a wider poisons law
The standing committee of the territorial assembly adopted the measure as part of a framework covering poisonous substances. It divided them into toxic products, narcotics and dangerous products, with separate rules for medicines and for agriculture, industry and commerce.[1]
The framework drew on earlier colonial legislation. Its preamble named a 1924 decree regulating poisonous substances in the French Establishments in Oceania, alongside later pharmacy and drug laws. A high-commissioner’s order dated 4 September made the new deliberation executable; both appeared in the official gazette on 15 September.[1]
Possession and medical THC were prohibited
The cannabis provision reached beyond sellers. It prohibited importing, exporting, producing, trading, using and possessing Indian hemp, including preparations containing it or made from it. The text defined Indian hemp as the flowering and fruiting tops of the female cannabis plant, using the terminology of the period.[1]
The chapter on medicines separately prohibited dealings in THC, including its isomers and specified derivatives. A prescription alone therefore offered no ordinary route around that prohibition. Research exceptions required an order from the government council on the proposal of the public-health director.[1]
Seized cannabis was to be destroyed
The law also set out how officials could inspect pharmacies, drug stores and other premises handling controlled substances. Inspectors could demand records and authorisations, check stocks and seize products held contrary to the rules. Its final inspection provision required destruction of cannabis and preparations seized over breaches of the cannabis prohibition.[1]
By 2022, the Assembly’s health committee described the old framework as needing a complete overhaul. It explained that the existing rules provided no therapeutic-cannabis or industrial-hemp exception, while scientific research remained possible. Its proposed replacement sought to open those uses.[2]
Research eventually used the exception
The Institut Louis Malardé received permission to possess cannabis in March 2022, followed by cultivation permission in March 2023. Police supplied samples for screening local varieties; a separate programme grew imported varieties under controlled conditions.[3]
These experiments brought cannabis into authorised laboratories while the broader argument over patient access continued. The French Polynesia profile follows the later medical and hemp reforms.
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for French Polynesia here.
References
- JOPF — deliberation 78-137 of 18 August 1978 and executable order 3942 AA1978 · JOPF 28, 15 September 1978, pp.861–870; preamble and articles 1, 17–18, 42, 65–67
- Assembly of French Polynesia — report on the poisonous-substances bill, 28 October 2022Report pp.2–4, existing restrictions and proposed medical and hemp reformarchived
- Polynesian Competition Authority — opinion 2024-AO-01, 31 January 2024Printed pp.4–5, paragraphs 15–27 and footnote 10archived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.