The story
Turkmenistan’s replacement drug law took effect on 1 January 2018, reserving controlled cultivation to permitted enterprises and institutions within state quotas. For people using drugs, it prohibited consumption without a doctor’s order and set out registration, medical assessment and treatment rules.[1]
Growing depended on enterprise permission
The law named cannabis among drug-containing plants in its definitions. Its cultivation rule prohibited growing listed plants except through permitted enterprises and institutions, with production limited by state quotas. The cabinet was to set the permission procedure and rules for industrial, medical and scientific use.[1]
That route put authorised cultivation inside an institutional system. A person growing cannabis independently remained exposed to the criminal cultivation rules, which expressly named sowing and growing cannabis among the prohibited activities.[2]
The new law replaced the 2004 controls
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow signed the replacement in November 2017, with its start delayed until January. The law expressly repealed the drug-control law adopted in 2004 and amendments to it.[1]
One of those earlier amendments, adopted in 2016, concerned how enterprises and institutions received controlled substances in allocated quantities under cabinet-approved procedures. The replacement law continued to organise lawful handling around authorised institutions and state controls.[3][1]
Medicines needed special prescriptions
For patients receiving controlled medicines, the law required prescriptions on special forms and dispensing through licensed pharmacies in the state healthcare system. The health ministry was responsible for prescription and dispensing procedures, in coordination with the interior ministry.[1]
Scientific and educational handling also required institutional permission: specially licensed state institutions could undertake it. These rules defined the purposes and organisations through which controlled substances could lawfully pass.[1]
Treatment could be voluntary or court-ordered
People could seek treatment voluntarily, with anonymity on request, although information could be supplied to law-enforcement bodies following an official request. The law also provided for court-ordered treatment where someone diagnosed with drug dependence avoided observation and treatment and continued using.[1]
Registration and medical monitoring could accompany that diagnosis. A medical assessment could temporarily restrict specified occupations involving danger, with a right to challenge the decision in court.[1]
Later codes set the penalties
The criminal code effective from 2023 retained prison exposure for possession, supply and growing.[2] The administrative code separately covered minor-quantity possession without supply intent and use, allowing a fine or up to fifteen days’ detention.[4]
The Turkmenistan profile explains those penalties alongside the institutional controls and treatment rules.
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Turkmenistan here.
References
- Turkmenistan Parliament — law on narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursorsLaw of 25 November 2017, articles 1–2, 19–24, 28, 45–49 and 54; effective 1 January 2018
- Turkmenistan Parliament — Criminal Code, new editionLaw of 17 April 2022, commencement article 2; Criminal Code articles 327–330 and 335; effective 1 January 2023; consolidated text with later amendment notes
- Turkmenistan state news agency — amendment to the narcotics lawLaw signed 12 January 2016, published on portal 25 January; article 1 definition of distribution; commencement upon official publication
- Turkmenistan Parliament — Administrative Offences CodeCurrent consolidated articles 22(4) and 82, including amendment notes of 2014, 2015 and 2017; small quantities fixed by separate regulations
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.