WHETHER WE care to admit it or not, times are changing for Jamaica. We can continue to stick our heads in the sand and complain about globalisation, and get kicked in the arse.
Last week The Gleaner put a great big ganja leaf beside my head and the headline 'Free up Ganja'. This column has advocated ganja's decriminalisation in the past, not legalisation. The difference between decriminalisation and legalisation is that the former refers only to the user, and usually to the possession of only one ounce for his or her own
personal consumption. Legalisation
protects not only the user, but also the grower and all those in between.
Decriminalisation has been the standard position taken by the United States entity called NORML (National Organisation for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws). This lobby group has made some progress in 30 years, but even its small triumphs, particularly for medical use in some states, are in danger of being overturned by federal law.
In recent years, and especially in the 1990s, there has been a dramatic decline in Jamaica's bauxite/alumina productive sectors. Manufacture is no longer a driving force of economic growth, neither in job creation nor exports.
Agriculture is now stone dead. The recent decision of the European Economic Community to phase out subsidies to sugar and banana exports from its former colonies has been met with doom and gloom. Sugar and bananas have been on their last legs from I was a child. But the European Community's decision has effectively killed them. Only the tourism sector, along with bauxite and alumina, show any sign of life.
SERVICE-BASED
ECONOMY
For all practical purposes, Jamaica is moving rapidly towards a service-based economy. The recent growth in the
gaming industry is a backhanded form of development in an indigenous economy that is really now based only on struggling commercial activity and entertainment.
Our economy needs a new shot in the arm. Costa Rica is now growing ackee, so are Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Everybody knows that ackee was not only our national dish, but for years we were frustrated by the United States and Canada in exporting it to them. Once the U.S. Government lifted their embargo on ackees, other countries jumped in to grow this commodity and export to them.
The growing of marijuana is currently taking place in the United States and being tested for its strength and medicinal uses by U.S. drug companies. The Jamaican Government, therefore, needs to be proactive. This time, we must not be left behind, like what occurred to our ackee and pineapple.
The legalisation of ganja on a structured basis, therefore, makes a lot of sense. It would complement economic growth in a great many ways.
In the first place, Jamaica will be responding to the marketplace where the demand for marijuana is high and
growing worldwide. Jamaican marijuana is recognised not only as the best, but also by its own name 'ganja'. We are therefore the owners of a product that the international market will buy in any quantity, and at the highest premium. The value-added from the sale of ganja is extraordinarily high, with no leakages in foreign exchange.
HIGH-QUALITY GANJA
Hundreds of millions of dollars in
foreign exchange would be earned for the island from those coming to
'paradise'to consume our high-quality ganja. It is hard to see how we could run afoul of the U.S. Government if we legalised it. In Holland, for example, there is controlled legalisation of marijuana, and the mighty U.S. has not attempted to bring any sanctions against that country. Holland imports marijuana, so we could export to that country.
Yet another compelling reason to legalise ganja here is that there is enough medical evidence to support the use of marijuana for treating certain ailments. So the demand for it is not only from fun-seeking tourists, but also from people who could genuinely benefit from the herb.
Legalisation would therefore revitalise the agricultural sector, and hundreds of rural communities.
This would eliminate the criminal elements who now prosper from its illegality, and contribute to the horrendous and terrifying crime problem in Jamaica. A major natural resource such as ganja can benefit from sensible and practical regulation.
Once the legalisation of ganja is
properly structured, it could be taxed and bring in hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of revenue to the Government. That revenue could be earmarked for improvements in specific sectors like education and health, and to pay the police.
Legalising ganja is therefore the only logical course of action to take towards a valuable national resource, and nurture the one viable industry we have that really does have a 'trickle-down' effect. It would remove one source of the criminal links that now devour the island.
