The story
Police in Transnistria’s Dubossary district found thirteen cannabis plants in a 55-year-old woman’s garden in June 2018. She said she used the plants to make medicinal rubbing tinctures. Officers treated the garden as prohibited cultivation and reported a separate cannabis-possession case against her brother.[1]
A garden became part of the Mak campaign
The discovery came during Mak-2018, a police campaign against prohibited plants. Officers found one poppy alongside the woman’s cannabis. Their report described her purpose as preparing tinctures for rubbing on the body.[1]
The same announcement covered several other gardens in the district, including poppies grown by people who said they wanted them for baking or decoration. Those discoveries were sent for investigation too. The campaign therefore reached ordinary household gardens as well as plants grown for smoking.[1]
The woman’s explanation did not stop the police action. The report said she could face a substantial fine, compulsory work or up to two years in prison. The announcement described an investigation and the penalties being considered.[1]
Her brother faced a separate possession case
Officers found the woman’s 49-year-old brother smoking cannabis in the basement. They seized a smoking device and a parcel of dried plant material weighing 2.62 g. Police opened a criminal case for possession of an amount they classified as large and reported a possible three-year prison term.[1]
That allegation was distinct from the plants upstairs. The criminal code’s possession offence concerned acquiring or keeping drugs without intent to supply, while its cultivation offence concerned growing prohibited drug plants on the legally defined large scale. The ordinary prison maxima were three years for possession and two for cultivation.[2]
The two members of the same family faced different allegations: growing plants in the garden and holding dried cannabis in the basement. The family’s medical-purpose explanation and the brother’s personal consumption both came within the police campaign.[1]
Later cases kept plants and harvest separate
A 2018 amendment to the cultivation offence expressly defined growing to include creating conditions for sowing, tending plants, breeding varieties and improving yields. It retained the existing ordinary and aggravated prison ranges.[3][2]
A case sent to court in 2021 again combined allegations about plants with allegations about dried cannabis. Investigators reported 34 plants and 749.054 g of harvested material at a cottage used by a personal grower.[4]
Together, these reports show why the Transnistria profile needs to distinguish cultivation, harvested cannabis and use. A single garden could lead to several legal questions, and police pursued the 2018 case despite the claimed therapeutic purpose.[1][4]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Transnistria here.
References
- Novosti Pridnestrovya — Dubossary residents face proceedings for growing prohibited plants (11 June 2018)
- Ministry of Justice of Transnistria — Criminal Code, consolidated through 26 November 2014Article 229: large-scale cultivation, up to two years; aggravated tier three to eight years
- President of Transnistria — Law 231-ZI-VI of 26 July 2018Article 1 replaces Criminal Code article 229; article 2 provides commencement the day after official publication
- Novosti Pridnestrovya — Tiraspol resident faces criminal proceedings for growing cannabis (14 April 2021)Investigation, not conviction: 34 plants and 749.054 g of harvested cannabis; operation on 12 October 2020
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.