Legalise ganja but protect vulnerable

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:While not objecting to the ongoing bid to legalise ganja in Jamaica, some key stakeholders in Westmoreland say the process has to be properly managed to protect the most vulnerable.

"I think it (legalisation) is going to happen ultimately. But in the process, I think, as a nation, we have to protect the most vulnerable of our society," said the Reverend Carlton Wilson, chairman of the Westmoreland Ministers Fraternal, while speaking at a recent Gleaner 'State of the Capital' Editors' Forum in Savanna-la-Mar.

"One of the challenges we are going to face, though, is that many times, there are persons with psychotic problems that we would have to protect from that because it would only aggravate the situation," continued Wilson.

"And as a nation, I think if we are going to go ahead with decriminalisation, I think it would have to be well structured. I think there is tremendous value in ganja in terms of the various medicinal properties and other things," added Wilson.

"Endemically, Jamaica has been utilising it even without it being decriminalised, and I think all that the nation has to do now is to streamline how we move forward with the decriminalisation of the weed. But what some of the scientists are now saying is, we need to carefully deal with it and it can bring a lot of economic benefit to Jamaica. And I will go with that," Wilson stated.

In giving his take on the legalisation lobby, Custos Rotulorum of Westmoreland, the Reverend Hartley Perrin, said it was a known fact that ganja did not affect everyone in the same way.

"None can dispute the fact there are some among us who can smoke ganja all day and all night and still perform normally. In fact, perhaps if they didn't smoke, they wouldn't be normal, whereas, there are those who, if they were to take one spliff, it would have debilitating effects on them," the custos said.

"The whole thing has to be looked at carefully. And not because America has now said, 'it's all right', means that it is all right for the world. We tend to follow everything that America does and we don't have certain things in place that they already have," the custos concluded.

Two weeks ago, Westmoreland created history when a group headed by noted Rastafarian leader Iyah V launched the Westmoreland Hemp and Ganja Farmers' Association. The group wants an exclusive licence to grow and sell marijuana as well as the protection of the interests of the Rastafari community, which, it says, has been victimised for decades for cultivating the still-illegal herb.