# Was there a country that briefly legalized cannabis prior to 1969? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-country-that-briefly-legalized-cannabis-prior-to-1969/837077 "2019-07-14T18:58:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-country-that-briefly-legalized-cannabis-prior-to-1969/837077/1 "2019-07-14T18:58:09Z")
In a 1969 anti-drug educational film, [Keep Off The Grass](https://youtu.be/SKbNsqiG-Zg), right after 20:42, the narrator says that an (unnamed) country passed a law legalizing MJ but the outcome was so disastrous that they reversed it a few years later, and that currently the death penalty was in force even for simple possession. Is that true? What country was it? I can’t imagine how I would have missed hearing about that. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-country-that-briefly-legalized-cannabis-prior-to-1969/837077/2 "2019-07-14T20:57:00Z")
Sounds like the Philippines to me. They made it illegal in [1972](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_the_Philippines) and the harshest penalty from drug dealers for a while was the death penalty. (But the death penalty is making a comeback _ex officio_.) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-country-that-briefly-legalized-cannabis-prior-to-1969/837077/3 "2019-07-14T22:03:25Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > In a 1969 anti-drug educational film, [Keep Off The Grass](https://youtu.be/SKbNsqiG-Zg)… Much of the info in those anti-drug films was either completely made up, or greatly exaggerated from a grain of truth\*. So I wouldn’t look too hard for a cite. - Just like much of the ‘info’ in current pro-marijuana publications. For example: “Columbus took 80 tons of marijuana with on his voyages to America.” Well, actually, he took 80 tons of rope. (They were sailing ships, after all.) Since rope at that time was made from hemp, and that’s the same plant that produces marijuana, there’s a nugget of truth to the statement. But it’s really misleading. And the people making it intend to mislead you. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-country-that-briefly-legalized-cannabis-prior-to-1969/837077/4 "2019-07-14T22:09:14Z")
Cannabis was legalised in Burma in 1939 and made illegal again in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-country-that-briefly-legalized-cannabis-prior-to-1969/837077/5 "2019-07-15T00:43:51Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > . (But the death penalty is making a comeback _ex officio_.) I do not think “ex officio” means what you think it means. It would be “de jure” (by law) or “de facto” (by fact). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-country-that-briefly-legalized-cannabis-prior-to-1969/837077/6 "2019-07-15T12:11:14Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I do not think “ex officio” means what you think it means. It would be “de jure” (by law) or “de facto” (by fact). Oops. I was taking “ex” as meaning “outside of”. And … looking up not even close at all.