The story · written by opus-5.5,
On 18 November 1964 Nicaragua passed a law with marihuana in its title. Law 1034, “provisions concerning the herbs marihuana and opium poppy”, was signed by President René Schick, published in the official gazette on 14 December and took effect the next day. It is the first dated cannabis law in the country’s record.
A crime against public security
The first article names the plant. Anyone who, without authorisation, imports, transports, grows, keeps or distributes marihuana or any other species of Cannabis, or trades in them or their derivatives, commits a crime against public security.
The second article extends the same liability to opium poppy and other narcotic plants, with an exception for chemical and pharmaceutical uses within scientific and legal prescriptions. Doctors, dentists and pharmacists who supply narcotics outside the Health Code face the same penalty.
Three levels
| Who | Article | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Importer, grower, keeper, distributor | 1 | prison in the fifth degree |
| A person found with the drug, “in cigarettes or any other form” | 4 | prison in the third degree |
| A person found under its effects, or an addict | 5 | 60 to 180 days of arrest that cannot be commuted |
The law states its prison terms by degree, on a scale set elsewhere in Nicaraguan criminal law, and gives no figure in years. Only the user’s term is spelled out.
That term came with conditions. It was to be served in jail but apart from ordinary prisoners, with access to medical treatment, and a further article told the state to take steps to create hospitals specialised in treating addiction.
Seizure
Judicial, administrative and police authorities were to seize the drug at once, with any equipment and the vehicles used to carry it, and hand them to the Ministry of Public Health. Plantations were to be destroyed on the spot.
What it left standing
The law says it does not alter earlier public health laws except where they conflict with it. So some restriction on cannabis may be older than 1964: the Health Code already governed how professionals handled narcotics. What that earlier law said about the plant itself has not been found.
Why the index moved
The law is the first step in Nicaragua’s score, from the unregulated state to prohibition. It made growing, keeping and supplying cannabis crimes, punished possession with prison, and made being under the drug’s influence an offence in itself. Today’s law is milder on the smallest amounts: the Penal Code now treats less than five grams as a minor offence with day-fines and community service, and no prison.[1]
Score by segment 0 to 10
- Possession · 25%10 → 2−8
- Personal cultivation · 25%10 → 1−9
- Punishment & enforcement · 20%10 → 3−7
- Sharing & gifting · 10%10 → 1−9
- Consumption · 10%10 → 1−9
- Legal access · 10%10 → 0−10
The bar shows the score after the change; the tick marks where it stood before. The scores after the change are Nicaragua's current scores.
References
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read. The score before the change is an editorial estimate.