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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS