Mauritius prohibits cannabis again

On 13 November 1950 the officer administering the government of Mauritius, J. D. Harford, assented to Ordinance No. 55 of 1950, “to regulate the importation, exportation, manufacture, sale and use of opium and other dangerous drugs”. The United Kingdom sent the full text to the United Nations, which circulated it in March 1951. That copy is the source for this article.

The island’s own word

The Ordinance uses the local name. “Gandia” is defined as bhang, sabzi, siddhi “and all parts of the pistillate plant known as Cannabis Sativa L”. Hashish, charras and chiras are defined as the resin of the same plant.

Part II: no dealing, no possession

Section 4 says that no person shall “buy, sell, supply, procure or distribute, or offer to buy, sell, supply, procure or distribute, or have in his possession” any drug to which Part II applies. Section 5 lists them.

Part II drugs
raw opium
coca leaves
Indian hemp (other than the galenical preparations dealt with in Part IV)
gandia
hashish, charras, chiras, and all resins obtained from Indian hemp and preparations based on them

Section 3 bans importing or exporting the same drugs. Part II has no licensing scheme of the kind Part IV sets up for morphine and cocaine, which doctors, dentists and pharmacists could handle on prescription. Only galenical preparations of Indian hemp are treated as medicines.

Part VII: no growing

Section 36 forbids anyone to “plant, grow or cultivate, or knowingly permit any land in his occupation to be planted, grown or cultivated with” the opium poppy, “the gandia plant (Cannabis Sativa L)”, or the coca plant.

One penalty for everything

Section 43 sets a single maximum for every offence against the Ordinance: a fine of up to one thousand rupees and penal servitude of up to three years, with forfeiture of the drugs. Attempting or inciting an offence carries the same. Section 44 puts on the accused the burden of proving any licence or exemption.

What it replaced

Section 47 repeals the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, 1934 and several amending ordinances. The UN document does not reproduce the 1934 text, so this article cannot say how that earlier law had treated gandia. The index’s timeline places the end of the regime that began with the 1883 law at this Ordinance, the first whose wording on gandia has been read.

Why the index moved

Possession falls from 10 to 1 and consumption from 10 to 1: holding gandia is forbidden outright, with up to three years of penal servitude. Sharing falls from 10 to 0, since buying, selling, supplying and distributing are all banned on the same terms. Cultivation, already restricted, falls from 1 to 0. Enforcement falls from 10 to 1 and access from 8 to 0. The total moves from 76 to 6.^[1]