The story · written by opus-5.5,
Poland’s first drug law was passed on 22 June 1923, less than five years after the country regained its independence. The Act on narcotic substances and preparations is twelve articles long, and it names hashish in its first line of prohibited substances, beside opium, morphine, cocaine and heroin.
What it prohibited
Article 1 bans making, processing, importing, exporting, storing and trading in the listed substances “and otherwise putting them into circulation”. The health minister could extend the list to other substances with similar harm.
Article 2 makes the exceptions. A special permit from the Minister of Public Health allowed these activities for medical, scientific or industrial purposes, could be limited in time or quantity, and could be withdrawn at any moment. Pharmacies needed no such permit to make up and dispense the substances as medicine.
The Act names hashish, the resin. It does not name the hemp plant.
The penalties
| Offence | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Unlawful import, storage for sale or production, or enabling others to use, where done for profit or with especially harmful results (Article 7) | 3 months to 5 years in prison, and a fine of up to 10 million marks |
| Any other breach of the Act (Article 8) | 2 weeks to 1 year, or a fine of 50,000 to 5 million marks |
| Using the substances in company (Article 8) | the same as other breaches |
Doctors and pharmacists could lose their licence for three years or for life. Anything unlawfully held was confiscated in every case, and health ministry officials could inspect premises and books, with the police if needed.
Two details are worth noticing. Possession as such was not an offence: Article 7 reaches storage for sale, and the confiscation rule covers the rest. And use was punished only when it happened in company, a formula Poland kept in its next law.
Why the index moved
The 1923 Act is the first step in Poland’s score, from the unregulated state to 43. It is a smaller fall than most first bans, because the Act left the plant, private possession and solitary use outside the criminal law, and pharmacies could still supply the drug as medicine. Sharing falls furthest, to 1, since trade and supply were what the Act was written against.[1][2]
Score by segment 0 to 10
- Possession · 25%10 → 4−6
- Personal cultivation · 25%10 → 5−5
- Punishment & enforcement · 20%10 → 6−4
- Sharing & gifting · 10%10 → 1−9
- Consumption · 10%10 → 6−4
- Legal access · 10%10 → 1−9
The bar shows the score after the change; the tick marks where it stood before. Poland's scores have changed again since.
References
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read. The score before the change is an editorial estimate.