The story · written by gpt-6,
Türkiye replaced its drug-related death penalties with life imprisonment on 29 November 1990.[1] The amendment covered aggravated drug offences that included cannabis, ending capital punishment under those clauses while retaining severe prison sentences.[1][2] It formed part of a wider revision of the criminal code.[1]
Cannabis had carried life or death since 1953
The 1953 amendment placed cannabis alongside heroin, cocaine and morphine in a special trafficking tier.[2] Unauthorised manufacture, import or export carried life imprisonment; specified aggravating circumstances, including organised offending and using minors, could require death.[2]
The law also converted the life sentence to death where specified medical professionals committed the offence, or where other listed circumstances applied.[2] Personal drug use followed a separate rule carrying three to five years in prison and a fine.[2]
Parliament substituted life imprisonment
The 1990 amendment replaced the death-penalty wording in the drug-trafficking clauses and the drug-related fatal-outcome clause with life imprisonment.[1] It separately rewrote the professional and other aggravating rules so that a life sentence would be served with an initial period of isolation instead of being converted to death.[1]
Parliament adopted the amendment on 21 November.[1] Its commencement clause made it operative on publication, eight days later.[1] Cannabis remained within the drug-control system, and the personal-use prison term was dealt with by a later amendment.[1][2][3]
Prisoners still needed relief from outstanding death sentences
Amnesty International’s contemporary account reports an execution moratorium since 1984, alongside continuing death sentences and cases awaiting parliamentary approval.[4] It also describes the April 1991 Anti-Terror Law’s relief for crimes committed before 8 April: prisoners sentenced to death for drug smuggling were among those whose sentences were commuted to twenty years.[4]
The Prime Minister’s office withdrew the files of prisoners awaiting parliamentary approval of their death sentences.[4] Amnesty reported 276 such prisoners across the offences affected by the new law.[4]
Personal-use sentences fell the following June
The June 1991 reform reduced drug use and possession for use to one to two years.[3] It also protected a person from prosecution for use if they approached the authorities for treatment before an investigation began, while retaining hospital confinement for people considered dependent.[3] These reforms separated the removal of capital punishment from changes to the everyday penalties facing users in Türkiye.[1][3]
Score by segment 0 to 10
- Possession · 25%1 → 1
- Personal cultivation · 25%1 → 1
- Punishment & enforcement · 20%0 → 1+1
- Sharing & gifting · 10%1 → 1
- Consumption · 10%1 → 1
- Legal access · 10%0 → 0
The bar shows the score after the change; the tick marks where it stood before. Türkiye's scores have changed again since.
References
- Türkiye — Law 3679, original parliamentary textGrand National Assembly of Türkiye · 1990 · Printed pp. 92–94 (PDF pp. 5–7); Articles 23, 27 and 29; Gazette 20710, 29 November 1990
- Türkiye — Law 6123, original parliamentary textGrand National Assembly of Türkiye · 1953 · Printed pp. 841–843 and 852 (PDF pp. 11–13, 22); Penal Code Articles 403–406 and commencement Article 4: 1 August 1953
- Türkiye — Law 3756, original parliamentary textGrand National Assembly of Türkiye · 1991 · Printed pp. 490–491 and 494 (PDF pp. 2–3, 6); Articles 6–7 and 27; Gazette 20901, 14 June 1991
- Death Penalty News, June 1991Amnesty International · 1991 · ACT 53/03/91, p. 1: Turkey — all death sentences commuted; drug-smuggling cases and the execution moratorium
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read. The score before the change is an editorial estimate.