Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Brian Hioe
CANNABIS LEGALIZATION ADVOCATE Zoe Lee recently filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter. This was on the grounds of Musk’s advocating for the benefits of using cannabis.
In particular, Lee filed the lawsuit in order to draw attention to new guidelines from the Ministry of Justice that asserted that advocating for the decriminalization of cannabis could constitute inciting others to use cannabis, something punishable by law.
On these grounds, Elon Musk’s statement could be interpreted as violating Taiwanese law. Though, of course, pursuing a lawsuit against Musk is unlikely to succeed and the lawsuit is likely to be thrown out, the point would be to draw attention to the absurdity of the claims by the Ministry of Justice.
Press conference by Zoe Lee this morning
After all, apart from violating basic freedoms regarding free speech and political advocacy, the Ministry of Justice seemed to be suggesting that it would be within its rights to target activists such as Lee herself. Part of the suggestion would be that the Ministry of Justice might pursue depictions of cannabis usage in the media, such as by artists or in music videos, under the grounds that this is inciting cannabis usage.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Justice would likely be overstepping its grounds if this were the case, acting as though it could censor media for content as though this were still the authoritarian era. Some take the view the Ministry of Justice’s release indicates efforts by government officials to retaliate against or threaten cannabis legalization advocates.
The Ministry of Justice, too, asserted that it is within its rights to prosecute Taiwanese that use cannabis abroad. The Ministry of Justice may be alarmed by videos of Taiwanese using cannabis in other countries where it has been decriminalized.
More seriously, then, Lee filed against the Ministry of Justice’s new guidelines this morning as violating international human rights conventions ratified by Taiwan. Lee held a press conference earlier this morning, accompanied by former Taipei city councilor and YouTuber Froggy Chiu.
Ironically, in a similar timeframe, the Constitutional Court ruled that the current penalties for selling Category 1 narcotics in Taiwan are illegal, seeing as there are cases of minor crimes being given severe penalties. Category 1 narcotics include heroin, opium, cocaine, and morphine. The Constitutional Court cited a case in which a man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for selling 800 NT worth of heroin, stating that current punishments for drug selling did not accommodate for cases, but treated any act of selling drugs as the same in severity.
Significantly, sections of the law allowing for the use of the death penalty for selling or manufacturing such drugs will be removed.
The legislature has been given two years to amend such laws. It is to be seen, however, if the legislature drags its feet on the matter, seeing as lawmakers may not wish to be associated with a public image of being light on drugs, or allowing drug dealers to get off with only light punishments. It is possible that the legal issue becomes one that neither political party wants to deal with, which may raise issues as the two-year deadline set by the Constitutional Court approaches.
The Constitutional Court, too, paved the way for the legalization of gay marriage by setting a two-year window in which the legislature would have to take action on the issue, otherwise gay marriage would automatically be legalized. This is increasingly a tactic taken by the Constitutional Court on rulings about hot potato political issues.
Text of petition by Lee on the new laws
To this extent, cannabis is a Category 2 narcotic in Taiwan. Category 2 narcotics include opium poppy, coca, cannabis, ampheta, pethidine, and pentazocine. As such, the ruling does not affect cannabis.
Despite neighbors such as Thailand legalizing cannabis, Taiwan remains highly conservative where drug laws are concerned. Indeed, it has been noted that punishments for drug use or sale are sometimes more severe than murder, with relatively light punishment for deaths that occur by car accidents and the like compared to cannabis use.
Taiwan’s drug laws were historically linked to those of the US, in that Taiwan largely mimicked the US in adopting strict drug laws. But at a time in which the US has decriminalized cannabis, Taiwan has not followed suit. This proves ironic, seeing as Taiwan has continued to look to the US to provide legal precedents on a number of issues–inclusive of the legalization of gay marriage–on which Taiwan has otherwise been hailed as more progressive than its regional neighbors.
Either way, there has been a growing movement in Taiwan to liberalize drug laws, as fronted by the issue of cannabis legalization. 420 rallies have grown significantly in scale in past years, even as law enforcement has carried out searches, and otherwise seems alarmed by the trend in favor of liberalization of drug laws. Perhaps the Ministry of Justice’s recent statement is a further indication of this.