“My nephew was arrested yesterday. He is an engineering student in Paris on vacation in the south [of Tunisia]. Police forced him to do a urine test, which came back positive [for cannabis].”

The photograph shows a banner in a protest against Law 52 about the use of drugs, in December 28, 2015, in front of Tunisian parliament building, in Bardo. It says:”Our Children and our Friends are not Criminals, “and articulates the demand to abrogate the law. © Nawat

I have received many calls like that since we released a report on the harsh sentences imposed for possession of any amount of cannabis in Tunisia. The callers want to know how we can help their children or friends who have been arrested.

The truth is there’s little we can do. Until the parliament changes the so-called “Law 52,” which imposes a mandatory one-year prison term for first-time use or possession of cannabis, the police will continue jailing people while awaiting results of a urine test. A positive test usually results in a year in prison.

Adopted in 1992, “Law 52” allows judges no discretion to reduce the sentence or consider penalties other than prison. It imposes a minimum five-year term on repeat offenders.

In 2015, Tunisia’s prisons held 7,451 people convicted of drug-related offenses, according to official statistics. About 70 percent of them – about 5,200 people – were convicted of using or possessing cannabis, known locally as “zatla.” That means thousands of mostly young people with no criminal record end up in overcrowded prison cells with hardened criminals; when freed, they face a job market that is tough even for people with no criminal record. The cost to the Tunisian state is significant: People convicted of drug offenses constitute 28 percent of the total state prison population.

These problems are not unacknowledged by the Tunisian government. In late 2015, it sent a draft drug law to parliament that would abolish prison terms for first-time offenders in drug use or possession cases. It would also do away with mandatory sentences, allowing judges to impose noncustodial sentences. But, three months later, the law has yet to be scheduled for debate in parliament, and there is no apparent justification for the delay. Meanwhile, police enforcement of Law 52 continues to upend the lives of many young Tunisians. Parliament should move swiftly to change this, or if it continues to drag its feet, a moratorium on enforcing possession laws on first time offenders should be considered.