Protestors on Friday demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Justice in Taipei, after the ministry on Wednesday last week said that telling others that marijuana use is “harmless” may be a criminal offense.
The ministry on Wednesday issued a press release citing stipulations in the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例). Article 7 of the act states that those found “guilty of seducing others to use Category two narcotics” may be sentenced to between one and seven years in prison, and may be fined up to NT$1 million.
Photo: CNA
Since marijuana is classified as a Category 2 narcotic under the act, protestors expressed concern that discussing marijuana use in public or on the internet would be interpreted as “seducing others to use” marijuana.
Zoe Lee (李菁琪), a prominent human rights lawyer who has provided legal advice to people fighting cannabis possession charges, joined Friday’s protest.
“The content of the ministry’s press release has arbitrarily expanded the interpretation of the current regulations on the prevention and control of narcotics hazards,” she said.
“As a result, content creators and other people are afraid to fully express their opinions on marijuana-related issues, and are afraid to even create marijuana-themed works.”
Lee urged the ministry to clarify whether public discussion of marijuana use was legal.
Independent Taipei City Councilor Chiu Wei-chieh (邱威傑), who was also at the protest, compared discussion of marijuana use to that of meat products containing ractopamine – a food additive that promotes the growth of lean meat.
Chiu said that there was previously a lot of public discussion about whether ractopamine – which is used in imported meat products – is harmful to the human body. The government at the time addressed the issue scientifically, he said, saying that scientific discussion of marijuana use should also be permitted.
“Possession and use of marijuana is illegal in Taiwan, but freedom of speech itself should not be illegal. I don’t understand why we can’t discuss the impact of marijuana use on the body,” he said.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
RSS