THE EDITOR, Sir:TODAY, FOR the poor man in Jamaica, the use of ganja amounts to a "daily demonstration" of a state of de facto decriminalisation. However, for the politically out-of-favour, commercial grower, the occasionally hapless tourist, or the would-be, but incompetent, smuggler, ganja offers an all-too-tempting rationale for the police to solicit bribes and extort large sums of money from both local and foreign sources.
On the other hand, larger-scale and/or routine ganja smuggling operations, no doubt, have tacit, well-paid, stamps of approval in high places. Moreover, those operations' ongoing association with the transshipment of cocaine from South America are well known and the source of much gun and drug-inspired havoc, wreaked upon the society.
The difference, therefore, between the reality of ganja use and the illusion created by a huge, nation-bridging establishment, deliberately dedicated to the maintenance of that illegality for commercial gain and societal exploitation, is clearly demonstrated in Solicitor General Michael Hylton's recent pronouncements to the Jamaican Parliament.
As well meaning as his effort may have been, the statement that ganja's decriminalisation would be 'highly impractical, if not unworkable,' is totally unsupported and flies in the face of the poor man's "daily demonstration."
Moreover, such short-sighted thinking amounts to little more than a continuing endorsement of Jamaica's role as just another victim of the greater world community's lies, corruption, and hypocrisy - not at all in keeping with the historically truth-seeking, freedom-loving, and defiant spirit of Jamaica's people.
I am, etc.,
ED McCOY
mmhobo48@juno.com
Bokeelia, Florida
Via Go-Jamaica
