The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
Charas is a cannabis concentrate made from the resin of a live cannabis plant and is handmade in the Indian subcontinent and Jamaica. The plant grows wild throughout Northern India along the stretch of the Himalayas and is an important cash crop for the local people. The difference between charas and hashish is that hashish is made from a dead cannabis plant and charas is made from a live one.
Cannabis, also known as marijuana or weed among other names, is a non-chemically uniform drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various traditional medicines for centuries. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive component of cannabis, which is one of the 483 known compounds in the plant, including at least 65 other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract.
Lester Grinspoon was an American psychiatrist and long-standing associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School best known for his groundbreaking works on the science and social policy of cannabis, psychedelics and other drugs, and for his commitment to changing harmful drug policies. He concurrently served as a senior psychiatrist at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, Massachusetts, for 40 years. Grinspoon was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychiatric Association. He was founding editor of The American Psychiatric Association Annual Review and Harvard Mental Health Letter. Grinspoon was editor of Harvard Mental Health Letter for fifteen years.
Cannabis smoking is the inhalation of smoke or vapor released by heating the flowers, leaves, or extracts of cannabis and releasing the main psychoactive chemical, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is absorbed into the bloodstream via the lungs. Archaeological evidence indicates cannabis with high levels of THC was being smoked at least 2,500 years ago. As of 2021, cannabis is the most commonly consumed federally illegal drug in the United States, with 36.4 million people consuming it monthly.
In the United States, the non-medical use of cannabis is legalized in 24 states and decriminalized in 7 states, as of November 2023. Decriminalization refers to a policy of reduced penalties for cannabis offenses, typically involving a civil penalty for possessing small amounts, instead of criminal prosecution or the threat of arrest. In jurisdictions without penalty the policy is referred to as legalization, although the term decriminalization is sometimes used for this purpose as well.
In the United States, increased restrictions and labeling of cannabis as a poison began in many states from 1906 onward, and outright prohibitions began in the 1920s. By the mid-1930s cannabis was regulated as a drug in every state, including 35 states that adopted the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act. The first national regulation was the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.
Drug liberalization is a drug policy process of decriminalizing, legalizing, or repealing laws that prohibit the production, possession, sale, or use of prohibited drugs. Variations of drug liberalization include drug legalization, drug relegalization, and drug decriminalization. Proponents of drug liberalization may favor a regulatory regime for the production, marketing, and distribution of some or all currently illegal drugs in a manner analogous to that for alcohol, caffeine and tobacco.
Cannabis in Portugal is decriminalized, as a result of the decriminalization of all drugs in Portugal in 2001. Medical use of cannabis was legalized in 2018.
Cannabis had been illegal in Morocco since the nation's independence in 1956, reaffirmed by a total ban on drugs in 1974, but was partially tolerated in the country. Cannabis has been cultivated in Morocco for centuries and the country is currently among the world's top producers of hashish. As of 2024, Morocco was the world's top supplier of cannabis. On May 26, 2021, the Moroccan parliament voted to legalize the use of cannabis for medical, as well as cosmetic and industrial purposes.
Cannabis in Syria is illegal. Under the policies of the Syrian Arab Republic cannabis is illegal and punishable by up to 20 years in prison in large drug trafficking offenses, if someone is considered an addict by the Syrian government then they face no criminal penalties for drug use and possession. Since the start of the Syrian civil war cannabis laws have become widely unenforced by the Syrian government as well as Kurdish and rebel controlled territories, while civilians growing cannabis in Jabhat al-Nusra controlled territory face arrest. On multiple occasions Bashar al-Assad granted general amnesties to multiple crimes which included drug trafficking offenses.
The list includes and details significant events that occurred in the global history of national-level implementations of, or changes made to, laws surrounding the use, sale, or production of the psychoactive drug cannabis.
The history of cannabis and its usage by humans dates back to at least the third millennium BC in written history, and possibly as far back as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B based on archaeological evidence. For millennia, the plant has been valued for its use for fiber and rope, as food and medicine, and for its psychoactive properties for religious and recreational use.
Cannabis in Liechtenstein is illegal with severe penalties for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.
Cannabis in Monaco is illegal. The production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes being a criminal offense with a penalty of up to one year in jail in addition to a fine of up to €1680. Despite the strong laws, the police and courts are often lenient, letting offenders off with a warning.
Cannabis in Djibouti is illegal with penalties for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Offenders may be fined or receive up to five years in prison. Use of cannabis in Djibouti is low due to poor conditions for cultivation and the local preference for the legal drug khat.
Cannabis in Tajikistan is illegal with severe penalties for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Punishments include up to five years in prison for possession and capital punishment or 25-year sentence for sale.
Cannabis in Haiti is illegal with severe punishments for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.
Cannabis in the Solomon Islands is illegal for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Offenders receive a fine of up to $100,000 or imprisonment of ten years. A 2011 survey of young people, found that 16.1% of males and 11.1% of females had ever used cannabis.
Cannabis in Tuvalu is illegal with severe punishments for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Due to the nation's high development index, illegal substance abuse effectively does not exist in Tuvalu and there were no reports of drug-related crimes on Tuvalu in 2019 or 2020.
