Beard Bros: The Jarred Dwayne Shaw Case Exposes Indonesia’s Outdated Cannabis Laws | Cannabis Law Report | Where to order Skittles Moonrock online
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Considering Indonesia is currently discussing medical cannabis research and the country hasn’t executed anybody since 2016 I find this US centric reporting rather underwhelming.
Yes, around 530 people are currently on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreign nationals, Indonesian Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed late 2024.
Five Australians who spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prisons for heroin trafficking were returned to Australia in December 2024 under a deal struck between the Indonesian and Australian governments. and Indonesia has also recently agreed in principle to return a French man and a British woman, both on death row, to their home countries.
As for cannabis possession although it makes for a good headline nobody has ever been known to be executed for the crime..
Recent cases suggest, if anything, Indonesian authorities are relaxing their sentencing ..
The Independent UK Sept 2024 reported on a number of cases concerning foreign nationals all trying to bring drugs into Bali .. not a good idea at the best of times
Two Thai nationals, Rachanon Jongseeha, 33, and Woranawan Wongsuwan, 31, were arrested upon arrival at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport on 8 September for possession of methamphetamine and crystal MDMA, provincial anti-narcotics chief Rudy Ahmad Sudrajat said.
The pair were found carrying 1.9kg of methamphetamines mixed with the party drug MDMA in 108 sachets of a fruit-flavoured collagen drink, and 20 pills of MDMA, police said.
“The drugs would be handed over to two Indonesians who ordered it,” Mr Sudrajat said.
Police later arrested the two Indonesians for allegedly ordering the drugs from Thailand. One of the suspects was arrested at the Bali airport while a courier was arrested later. All four could face execution by firing squad if charged and found guilty, Mr Sudrajat said.
Police also announced the July arrests of two European men on drug charges. They face strict punishment but not the death penalty.
A Latvian man, identified by the initials VS, was arrested at the Bali airport on 4 July for carrying 450.41 grams of hashish and 977.83 grams of cannabis in a suitcase. Police said the suspect had a tattoo indicating affiliation with organised crime groups in the former Soviet Union.
He faces a possible life sentence for cannabis smuggling.
A Swedish man identified by the initials SUE was detained on 31 July following a raid at a villa in the popular tourist spot of Gianyar. The officers recovered 201.28 grams of hashish, having been tipped off that this person had received a suspicious package by mail from Thailand.
The Swedish national faces 15 years in prison, Mr Sudrajat said.
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, and has more than 150 people on death row, mostly for drug trafficking offences. About a third of them are foreigners.
Eighteen people convicted of drug-related offences have been executed under current president Joko Widodo, who took office in 2014.
The anti-narcotics unit raided a suspected drug lab in May which led to the arrest of two Ukrainians, a Russian and an Indonesian. All the foreigners arrested face the death penalty for operating a hydroponic marijuana and mephedrone production lab.
An Australian man was sentenced to six months of medical rehabilitation in July for possessing methamphetamine. Troy Andrew Smith, from Port Lincoln in South Australia, was arrested on 30 April after police raided his hotel in Legian and seized 3.15 grams of crystal methamphetamine inside a toothpaste container from his room. Police found a further 0.4 grams of the drug, along with a bong and a lighter in his desk drawer.
Earlier in November 2019, a court in Bali sentenced two Thai nationals to 16-year prison terms for smuggling 1kg of methamphetamine into the country. The same year, a French citizen was sentenced to death on Lombok, an island next to Bali, for smuggling 3kg of MDMA before a higher court commuted his sentence to 19 years in prison.
Beard Brothers write
The case of Jarred Dwayne Shaw, an American basketball player in Indonesia, shines a spotlight on the country’s archaic cannabis laws. Shaw, a former player for the Santa Cruz Warriors and a current member of Indonesia’s basketball league, was arrested earlier this month for possessing 132 cannabis candies. Under Indonesia’s insane drug policies, Shaw could face life imprisonment or even the death penalty by firing squad, reports AP News.
It’s shocking, to put it mildly, that authorities are still pursuing such extreme punishments in 2025 over non-lethal substances like cannabis. While the world continues to gather evidence of marijuana’s medical and therapeutic properties, regions like Southeast Asia remain attached to outdated frameworks at significant human cost.
Is Cannabis in Southeast Asia Reluctantly Crawling Toward Reform?
Southeast Asia has historically held some of the harshest drug laws in the world, a stance enforced by harsh penalties, including capital punishment for drug-related offenses. Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have long been infamous for their heavy-handed approaches. Yet, it’s riddled with irony. Ancient texts and history document the region’s long-standing relationship with cannabis. For centuries, marijuana served culinary, medicinal, and spiritual roles in parts of Asia.
However, post-colonial influences, fueled by the global “war on drugs,” swept these traditions under the rug, leaving many nations to pursue zero-tolerance policies. Indonesia maintains some of the strictest drug laws around the globe. Being caught with even small quantities of marijuana can lead to years behind bars. For cases like Jarred Dwayne Shaw’s, involving alleged smuggling, the consequences escalate to life imprisonment or the death penalty.
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