It’s become a commonality for countries to have strange and sometimes contradictory laws when it comes to marijuana. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s interesting, and sometimes it’s just plain weird. Malaysia is a great example. While Malaysia has approved legal medical cannabis, it also still maintains a death penalty for traffickers, setting the limit as low as 200 grams.
Malaysia has some super conflicting drug laws, now allowing legal medical cannabis, but also instituting the death penalty for not-that-big crimes. Perhaps future updates will smooth everything over. We’re on top of all of it, and dedicated to providing the best news possible. Subscribe to THC Weekly Newsletter for the latest stories, as well as exclusive deals on flowers, vapes, edibles, and many more products!Plus, we’ve got great discounts for cannabinoids, like HHC-O, Delta 8, Delta 9 THC, Delta-10 THC, THCO, THCV, THCP & HHC, which you can find in our “Best-of” lists!
Malaysia and cannabis
Malaysia might now allow legal medical cannabis, but it still has some ongoing laws that make it one of the harshest countries on this planet for cannabis crimes. According to current laws, having less than five grams of cannabis can net a person up to five years in prison and a fine of up to RM 20,000 (~$4,777). Being caught with up to 20 grams can mean getting 3-9 lashes. If anyone remembers Michael Fay, and his Singapore escapades back in the 90’s, you know that lashing is nothing to sneer at, and does some pretty intense physical damage.
Having 20-50 grams can incur a prison sentence of 2-5 years as well as 3-9 lashes. If the offender is caught with 50-200 grams, the punishment becomes a prison sentence of no less than five years and up to a life term, as well as at least ten lashes, if not more.
Then it gets even stickier. If a person is caught with 200 grams of cannabis or more, it’s automatically considered trafficking, and trafficking comes with a death sentence. According to the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1952, it’s a mandatory death penalty. How mandatory it actually is, is hard to say, but it’s not an unused law, which means at least sometimes, Malaysia is killing people for simply having 200 grams of weed. While this isn’t a tiny amount, consider that in America, 50 kilograms won’t net more than five years, and as much as 1,000 kilograms will incur a person 10 years to life in prison.
Like this case from 2018, when a death sentence was handed down to Muhammad Lukman who was selling cannabis oil to patients in need. On August 30th, 2018, Lukman received a death sentence for being found with “3.1 liters of cannabis oil, 279g of compressed cannabis and 1.4kg of substances containing tetrahydroca
nnabinol.” He got the sentence despite a clear case of providing medical cannabis, even giving it away for free to patients who could not afford it.
In a fantastic turn of events, on February 17th, 2021, a federal court set aside his conviction on two drug trafficking charges. Instead of death, he was sentenced to five years in prison for each crime. These sentences were set to run concurrently from the time of arrest, meaning when this happened, his jail time was considered served. He did receive 10 lashes, but then went free.
That didn’t do anything for later cases. Like this case, from early 2021 in which a 62-year old Malaysian grandfather was arrested for giving out edibles with hemp seed oil, for medical purposes. The man, Amiruddin Nadarajan Abdullah, dubbed ‘Dr. Ganja’, faces the death penalty for this crime. Amiruddin was “charged with 16 counts of trafficking ganja (cannabis) weighing about 77.48kg under Section 39B (1)(A) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, punishable under Section 39B (2) of the same Act, which carries the death penalty upon conviction.” He was also “charged with 18 counts of planting cannabis under Section 6B (1) (a) which carries life imprisonment and at least six strokes of the rotan upon conviction.”