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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Jamaica: Panel Urges Legalization Of Marijuana In Jamaica
David Gonzalez New York Times
Sunday 30 Sep 2001 KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Along Luke Lane, a narrow, cluttered side street nestled in one of West Kingston's busy markets, the smell from glistening heaps of red snapper quickly gives way to another more pungent aroma. On barrels, footstools and tables lie piles of thick, bushy buds of marijuana, eagerly trumpeted by vendors who puff away all day. "People have nothing, so they plant ganja," said one young man, who declined to give his name but whose family grows marijuana in the countryside and sells it here for as little as $2 for a stem with a few thick buds. "If the police come by and mash it up, they will plant again the next day. And if the police come and take the herb here, we'll be out selling again the next day." For all that it is widely used in public here, marijuana is also illegal, with possession once punished with a mandatory sentence of 18 months at hard labor still subject to a stiff fine. Now, apparently in an effort to reconcile the law with reality, a government commission has recommended that Jamaica decriminalize marijuana for personal use while continuing bans on cultivation and trafficking. "The current law is unenforceable because ganja cannot be suppressed because it is too entrenched," said Barry Chevannes, the dean of social sciences at the University of the West Indies, who headed the commission. American officials, local clergy and the police have objected, but Prime Minister P. J. Patterson has said he finds some of the commission's recommendations "persuasive." International groups for drug law reform said the proposal reflected a growing trend in Europe and Canada toward easing drug laws. United States diplomats and law enforcement officials have warned that decriminalization might violate international antidrug treaties and could result in Jamaica's being denied American foreign aid if it was deemed uncooperative in the war on drugs. Fear of losing certification, and American aid, has worried local officials and the law enforcement authorities who oppose decriminalization. Mr. Chevannes noted that the panel supported increasing public education efforts to discourage smoking among youths, did not recommend public smoking, and supported stiffer criminal penalties for large-scale cultivation and trafficking. He said penalizing the widely accepted use of marijuana some 6,000 people a year are charged with marijuana offenses helped to bring the law itself into disrepute in Jamaica. Increased crime and warring drug gangs have left the public dazed by violence and murder, and distrustful of a police force that Jamaicans say regularly resorts to deadly force. But at least a fifth of the population of some 2.7 million smoke it for relaxation, religion or relief from illness, the report says. Rastafarians consider it a sacrament, and have long resisted any attempt to ban the herb. A potent medicinal infusion is made by stuffing buds into a bottle of white rum and burying it for nine days. Mothers brew ganja tea to give a teaspoonful to newborns to ward off illness and evil spirits. "People believe it is a panacea that can cure many things," Mr. Chevannes said. "With beliefs like that, it becomes virtually impossible to suppress." Other Jamaicans believe that there are more pressing problems urban violence and trafficking in cocaine from Colombia, for instance. "We have other issues that are much more critical to be spending time on than that," said Wendell Smith, the managing director of a computer company. "Anyway, it seems to be legal now. At the beach or concerts, the smell is most noticeable." Previous attempts to decriminalize marijuana have stalled, partly out of fear of backlash. The Rev. Devon Brown, a Pentecostal minister, is one opponent. His brother was a promising student in a good college, "but back in the 70's he became involved with the Rastas and began smoking ganja," he said. "Thirty years later, he still hasn't recovered from that." "It is not a positive part of our culture," Mr. Brown said. "It brings our values down." The commission's report has yet to be acted on by Parliament, and the prime minister, who faces elections by the end of next year, may decide to delay any move for fear of political backlash. Some leaders of his People's National Party said they would favor a national referendum, rather than a parliamentary vote, on the issue. "A political party must take a stand," said Paul Burke, the party chairman for Kingston and a longtime advocate of marijuana legalization. The report, he said, "just sidesteps the issue."
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