Vietnam combines cannabis possession and trade in a capital offence

Vietnam’s replacement criminal code began operating on 1 July 2000, keeping capital punishment available for large cannabis quantities.^[1][2] Possession, transport, trade and appropriation shared one offence: its highest band allowed twenty years in prison, life imprisonment or death from five kilograms of cannabis resin or seventy-five kilograms of cannabis leaves, flowers or fruit.^[1]

A new code combined existing offences

Parliament adopted the code in December 1999, replacing the amended 1985 code the following July.^[2] The 1997 drug chapter had already separated possession, transport, trade and appropriation into individual offences with cannabis quantity tables.^[3]

The replacement combined those activities under one article while keeping cultivation and drug production separate.^[1] The highest cannabis quantities remained the same, but the combined offence now offered twenty years as an alternative to life imprisonment or death; the 1997 highest band had offered life or death.^[1][3]

Weight changed the available sentence

The combined offence started at two to seven years in prison.^[1] Organised offending, repeated acts, cross-border transport or trade, employing children, selling to children and other listed aggravating circumstances could raise the punishment.^[1]

The quantity ladder distinguished cannabis resin from leaves, flowers and fruit.^[1] Resin from 500 grams to under one kilogram, or plant material from ten to under twenty-five kilograms, fell in the seven-to-fifteen-year band.^[1] From one to under five kilograms of resin, or twenty-five to under seventy-five kilograms of plant material, the band rose to fifteen to twenty years.^[1]

At five kilograms of resin or seventy-five kilograms of the listed plant material, the twenty-year, life-or-death band applied.^[1] The offence could also bring a fine, confiscation of property and restrictions on specified jobs or offices.^[1]

Growing and using had separate conditions

The cultivation offence expressly covered cannabis.^[1] Its basic six-month-to-three-year term required continued growing after repeated education, help to stabilise the person’s livelihood and an administrative sanction.^[1] Organised cultivation or repeat offending carried three to seven years.^[1]

The use offence likewise depended on earlier interventions: repeated education and administrative placement in compulsory treatment, followed by continued drug use.^[1] Its basic sentence was three months to two years, with two to five years for repeat offending.^[1] Together, these rules kept prison terms for qualifying cultivation and use alongside capital exposure for large cannabis quantities in Vietnam.^[1]