Vanuatu suspends a five-plant sentence after months already spent in custody
A first offender who grew five cannabis plants weighing 15.5 grams received a suspended sentence, sixty hours of community work and six months’ supervision.[@1] Brightly Kaiding had already spent three months and two days in custody before bail, which the court deducted from a nine-month term, leaving five months and twenty-eight days suspended for two years.[@1] The court treated the grow…
🇻🇺 Vanuatu
A twenty-one-year-old first offender received a suspended sentence for five cannabis plants in Vanuatu on 23 May 2024. By then, Brightly Kaiding had already spent three months and two days in custody before bail, time that the court deducted from his prison term.[1]
His grandfather reported the plants
Kaiding lived with his grandparents and supported them through farming, including food crops and kava. His grandfather, who was also a chief, saw him cultivating cannabis and reported him to the police.[1]
Officers went to the garden with the grandfather, uprooted five plants and seized them. The tested material had a net weight of 15.5 grams. Kaiding admitted the allegations when cautioned and later pleaded guilty.[1]
He had no previous criminal record. The court recorded his cooperation, his early admissions and his good relationship with his family and community.[1]
The offence carried a much higher maximum
The cultivation offence had a maximum of twenty years in prison, a fine of VT100 million, or both. The judge nevertheless placed this case in the least serious category of the 2013 cannabis-growing guidance.[1]
That guidance distinguishes small personal cultivation from crops grown for commercial profit. For the first category, fines or other measures outside prison are usual, while more serious circumstances can justify community work, supervision or short custody.[2]
The categories guide sentencing within the broad legal maximum; the court still considers the facts and the person before it.[1][2]
Custody before bail counted toward the sentence
The judge began with sixteen months in prison, then reduced the term for Kaiding’s personal circumstances and early guilty plea. The resulting term was nine months.[1]
Kaiding had been arrested on Malekula on 18 November 2023, transferred to Santo Correctional Services Centre and held until he was released on bail on 19 February 2024. The court deducted that three-month-two-day period, leaving five months and twenty-eight days.[1]
It suspended the remaining term for two years and added sixty hours of community work and six months’ supervision.[1]
Suspension came after time already served
The sentence illustrates why the word suspended tells only part of the story: Kaiding had already spent months in custody while waiting for the case to proceed.[1]
An earlier pest-barrier grow ended with community service.[3] In January 2026, officials reaffirmed that the licensed medical-cannabis industry was for export, with no local sales.[4] Vanuatu’s profile describes those industry rules alongside the penalties for personal cultivation.
Sources
- five plants, remand and a suspended sentence. Public Prosecutor v Kaiding, 2024. Supreme Court, 23 May 2024; paragraphs 1–17.
- small cannabis grows and personal possession. Public Prosecutor v Lovis, 2017. Supreme Court, 1 September 2017; paragraphs 1–28, especially reproduction of Wetul guidelines at paragraph 24.
- cannabis grown as a pest barrier. Public Prosecutor v Iauko, 2017. Supreme Court, 15 May 2017; paragraphs 2–6; cites Wetul decision of 26 July 2013.
- Ezra Toara, Kizzy Kalsakau. Government maintains tight control on medical cannabis and industrial hemp. In Vanuatu Business Review. Vanuatu Business Review, 2026. 20 January 2026; direct comments by Director General Timothy Tumukon on licences, export, local sales and banking.