The story
Ukraine narrowed its ordinary criminal-growing offence on 7 May 2008: it now required more than 100 cannabis or opium-poppy plants. The change formed part of a wider reform of criminal penalties that also expanded sentencing choices for people possessing drugs without intending to sell them.[1][2]
The old offence had no minimum plant count
The 2001 criminal code had made ordinary unlawful sowing or growing a crime without specifying a minimum crop size. Courts could impose a fine, up to six months’ arrest or up to three years of restriction of liberty.[3]
The 2008 amendment added the words requiring more than 100 plants to that ordinary offence. It changed which grows could reach that charge, while leaving the separate aggravated-growing rule in place. That rule still covered specified previous drug crimes, group growing for sale and crops of 500 or more plants.[1][3]
President Viktor Yushchenko signed the reform. The law commenced on publication, recorded in the government newspaper on 7 May; only a separate provision on paying fines in instalments was deferred until January 2009.[1][2]
People possessing drugs gained more sentencing options
For ordinary criminal possession without intent to sell, the original code had offered restriction of liberty or imprisonment for up to three years. The reform added a fine of fifty to 100 non-taxable minimum incomes, corrective labour for up to two years and arrest for up to six months.[1][3]
Restriction of liberty and imprisonment remained available. The amendment expanded the court’s choices for that offence alongside its change to cultivation. Its stated purpose was a broader humanisation of criminal responsibility, covering many offences beyond drugs.[1]
The reform also reached existing cases
The final provisions ordered release from punishment for conduct whose criminal liability the law removed, and closure of cases concerning that conduct. Where a person still had a sentence to serve for another offence, that other punishment continued.[1]
The law also directed reductions where an existing sentence exceeded a new maximum. Courts were to deal with the specified review questions in an open hearing on an application from a prosecutor or the institution administering the sentence, with an appeal available.[1]
Less than a year later, parliament tightened the cannabis thresholds, bringing the ordinary criminal tier down to ten plants and the aggravated plant-count tier down to fifty. Those later limits shape the growing rules described in the Ukraine profile.[4]
Score by segment 0 to 10
- Possession · 25%2 → 2
- Personal cultivation · 25%1 → 2+1
- Punishment & enforcement · 20%3 → 3
- Sharing & gifting · 10%1 → 1
- Consumption · 10%2 → 2
- Legal access · 10%0 → 0
The bar shows the score after the change; the tick marks where it stood before. Ukraine's scores have changed again since.
References
- Ukraine — Law 270-VI, original 15 April 2008 edition, reproduced from the Rada portal2008 · Part I(1)(65)–(66), articles 309–310; final provisions 1–7 (commencement, release, case closures, reduced sentences).
- Rada open-data reproduction — Law 270-VI publication and commencement recordEffective 7 May 2008; Uriadovyi Kurier no. 83, 7 May 2008. Final clause defers fine instalments alone to 1 January 2009.
- Ukraine Criminal Code, original 5 April 2001 edition, reproduced from the Rada portal2001 · Articles 309–310; final/transitional provisions, Section I(1)–(2), commencement on 1 September 2001 and repeal of old code.
- Ukraine — Law 1165-VI of 19 March 2009, Rada open-data reproduction2009 · Part I(1), administrative article 106-2; Part I(2), criminal article 310(1)–(2); Part II, commencement on publication.
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read. The score before the change is an editorial estimate.