The Ministry of Justice on Saturday reaffirmed the government’s strong opposition to legalizing cannabis, after a demonstration called for its decriminalization.
Wave Green, a cannabis decriminalization advocacy group, marched on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building, urging the ministry to “end the war against cannabis” and “clear the stigma” associated with the plant.
The ministry said that the legal status of cannabis is aimed at maintaining public health, safety and stability.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
It cited the UN 2021 World Drug Report as evidence that the long-term and regular use of cannabis harms people’s health.
As many countries in the world maintain bans on cannabis, Taiwan’s policy is in line with the international community, the justice ministry said.
An panel of neurologists, pharmacologists and toxicologists said that cannabis is “addictive” and can damage the central nervous system, the ministry said.
The panel’s conclusions led to the government classification of cannabis as a category 2 narcotic — along with opium poppy, coca, amphetamines, pethidine and pentazocine — in the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), it said.
Category 1 narcotics include heroin, morphine, processed opium, cocaine and their derivative products.
Under the act, a person convicted of using cannabis “shall be punished with a maximum three-year fixed-term imprisonment.”
Those who manufacture, transport or sell cannabis are subject to life imprisonment or a minimum 10-year fixed term imprisonment, and can also be fined up to NT$15 million (US$492,368).
The act also says that people who are found guilty of possession with the intent to sell cannabis could be punished with a jail term of five years or longer, and might also be fined up to NT$5 million.
The justice ministry urged people not to contravene the law as prosecutors and police have intensified their efforts to crack down against cannabis use.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS