The story
Laos added a separate scale of prison sentences for THC, hashish and their derivatives in April 2013. The lowest listed band, more than 0.3 grams and up to 50 grams, carried two to four years in prison. Above 500 grams, the punishment reached life imprisonment, together with a substantial fine and confiscation of assets.[1]
Dried cannabis already carried years in prison
The 2005 penal-law revision had expressly addressed marijuana. Trading one to ten kilograms of dried cannabis carried three to seven years in prison and a fine of five to twenty million kip. Regular or organised trading, or quantities above ten kilograms, carried five to ten years.[2]
That earlier law also directed people addicted to smoking marijuana to treatment. It punished people providing services for cannabis consumption with three months to five years in prison. Cannabis trading and the treatment of users therefore already had separate places in the criminal law before the new hashish penalties.[2]
Hashish received its own weight bands
Parliament’s amendment added THC, hashish and THC derivatives to the cannabis penalty section. Between 50 and 100 grams, the stated prison range rose to five to seven years. The next band, 100–200 grams, carried ten to fourteen years; 200–500 grams carried fifteen to twenty years.[1]
Above 500 grams, the fine accompanying life imprisonment was one hundred to two hundred million kip. The amendment also provided for confiscating assets in the higher bands. These gram-based penalties sat beside the separate kilogram-based rules for dried-cannabis trading.[1]
For someone facing a prosecution, the substance identified and its net weight could therefore put the case into a very different sentencing range. The text expressly named both hashish and THC derivatives in this separate scale.[1]
Parliament delayed the amendment’s start
The National Assembly adopted the amendment in December 2012. President Choummaly Sayasone promulgated it in January 2013, and the law allowed ninety days before the amended rules took effect. That waiting period placed their commencement in April.[1]
The amendment also retained treatment for people addicted to smoking marijuana, alongside imprisonment for people providing cannabis-smoking services. Punishment for suppliers and treatment for users continued together in the same law.[1]
The replacement code carried the distinction forward
The replacement Penal Code retained the THC and hashish scale, including life imprisonment above 500 grams.[3] It took effect on 1 November 2018.[4]
That code also set express quantity bands for personal cannabis possession, directing people with under five grams for consumption to treatment and providing prison terms for five to ten grams of dried cannabis. The Laos profile brings those personal-use rules together with the separate trading penalties.[3]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Laos here.
References
- Laos — Law 22/NA of 11 December 2012 and promulgation decree of 17 January 2013Article 2, marijuana and THC/hashish paragraphs; articles 4–5; presidential decree 028/POarchived
- Laos — Penal Law amended on 9 November 2005, National Assembly-endorsed translationArticle 146(5), (7), pp. 48–49; article 179 and 2005 amendment commencement clause, pp. 56–57archived
- Laos — Penal Code adopted 17 May 2017, government-hosted English translationArticles 318, 320–321, pp. 92–95; article 425, p. 127archived
- WIPO Lex — Lao Penal Code, entry into force 1 November 2018Dates: entry into force; catalogue title differs from the attached code’s identifierarchived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.