The story
People who witness activities involving drugs must report them to national or local police under a Marshall Islands amendment effective from 6 October 2025. Failing to report carries a $1,000 fine. The same law promises confidentiality and protection from civil or criminal penalties for reports made in good faith.[1]
The obligation reaches people who witness drug activity
The reporting rule creates a duty for witnesses alongside the existing offences for handling drugs. It directs information to either national or local police and attaches a financial penalty to non-compliance. Good faith is the condition attached to the reporter’s protection from liability.[1]
For someone witnessing activity, the amendment therefore sets out both an obligation to report and safeguards for supplying the information. Its confidentiality clause guarantees protection of the information given under the reporting requirement.[1]
Cannabis was expressly added to the drug definition
The amendment also inserted marijuana and marijuana concentrate into the definition of a prohibited drug. It referred back to their existing definitions elsewhere in the Act, which distinguish ordinary marijuana from concentrates such as hashish and THC.[1][2]
This followed the 2020 revision, which renamed the narcotics law, expressly covered methamphetamine, MDMA and synthetic cathinones, and expanded seizure powers to include cash. The new 2025 wording placed cannabis and concentrates expressly within that revised prohibited-drug list.[1][3]
The existing penalties still depend on quantity and record
The consolidated law sets a first marijuana offence involving one ounce or less at a $1,000–5,000 fine, six months to one year in prison, or both. Larger amounts and previous convictions move the offence into higher bands.[2]
Supplying marijuana to someone under eighteen attracts additional penalties: a $25,000–50,000 fine, five to fifteen years in prison, or both. Concentrates have a separate weight-based scale with much heavier potential sentences.[2]
The reporting duty therefore operates beside substantial penalties for the drug activity itself. Its $1,000 fine applies to a person who fails to meet the witness-reporting requirement.[1][2]
School survey evidence supplied another view of cannabis use
A 2022 high school survey found that 13.8% of participating students reported marijuana use in the previous thirty days. Researchers collected confidential, anonymous substance-use responses from pupils in grades nine to twelve during March–May.[4]
That study recorded young people’s reported behaviour, while the later amendment addressed drug definitions and witnesses’ legal obligations. Parliament passed the amendment in September 2025; it took effect when the Speaker certified it on 6 October. The Marshall Islands profile explains how those obligations fit alongside possession, cultivation, supply and medical exceptions.[1][2][4]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Marshall Islands here.
References
- Marshall Islands — Prohibited Drugs (Prohibition and Control) (Amendment) Act 2025P.L. 2025-37; sections 102–103; parliamentary passage 19 September and certification 6 October 2025archived
- Marshall Islands Parliament — Prohibited Drugs Act 1987, consolidated through P.L. 2025-37Sections 902–910 and 912–912A; commencement and amendment notesarchived
- Marshall Islands — Prohibited Drugs (Prohibition and Control) (Amendment) Act 2020P.L. 2020-12; definitions, sections 909–910 and 912; effective-date clause and certification on p. 11archived
- Marshall Islands Ministry of Health and Human Services — Rapid High School Survey 2022Methodology, p. 7; marijuana use in the previous thirty days, p. 13; fieldwork March–May 2022archived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.