Tunisia's heavy jail terms for cannabis use spark reform calls
Tunisians have taken to social media to demand changes to the law after a court in Kef, northern Tunisia, sentenced three men to 30 years in jail for smoking a joint
Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, February 4, 2021
Thursday, February 4, 2021
Thirty years' jail for smoking a joint
after a football game? Tunisia has seen calls for reforms to dictatorship-era drug laws after a court handed down heavy sentences to three young men. Tunisians have taken to social media to demand changes to the law after the court in the northern city of Kef issued the sentence last month. The three -- all aged in their 30s -- had shared a joint in a disused locker room after a football match between friends. They faced heavier penalties because they were caught in a public place. Thousands of Tunisian youth are incarcerated every year on drug charges, with little in the way of prevention, rehabilitation or alternative punishment, in a country where around a third of young people are unemployed.
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