Campbell: PNP administration would bat for small ganja cultivators

WESTERN BUREAU:

Should the People’s National Party (PNP) form the next government of Jamaica, it is promising that small traditional ganja farmers will be given a seat at the table so they will have a greater stake in the country’s legal cannabis industry.

Dr Dayton Campbell, the PNP’s spokesperson on agriculture and fisheries, in urging the nation’s electors to support his party in the impending general election, says the party stands ready to address the disparity between large-scale investors and small, traditional ganja farmers.

According to Campbell, those who have fought to keep the ganja industry alive over many years should not be left behind. He said on Thursday that the current system favours corporate interests over local cultivators and that he believes legislative changes that prioritise economic justice and equitable access must be pursued.

“It can’t be that the same people who were locking up people over marijuana are now planting it legally and making money, and the people who were being locked up still don’t get an opportunity,” said Campbell, who was speaking at a PNP meeting in Darliston, Westmoreland, which is considered a key area for ganja farming.

In his passionate call for fairness, Campbell, who will be contesting the Westmoreland Eastern seat, where Darliston is located, said many Jamaicans still carry the scars and records of arrests for their involvement in ganja farming over the years.

“So, when some of them size themselves up, ask them (the Jamaica Labour Party), what have they done for the people of Jamaica?” said Campbell. “They take young people and throw them in a truck and lock them up under SOE [state of emergency], but Mark Golding ensured that he decriminalised marijuana, so they don’t get any criminal record.”

Golding, as minister of justice in 2015, led then PNP administration’s successful push to decriminalise the possession of small quantities of ganja for personal use, the smoking of ganja in private places and the use of ganja for medical/medicinal purposes. Golding is now PNP president and leader of the Opposition.

Mario Deane death

On Thursday, Campbell also commented on the tragic case of Mario Deane, who died in 2014 as the result of a brutal beating at the Barnett Street Police Station, where he had been placed in custody after the police arrested him for the possession of a ganja spliff.

“There is a case that is being tried in the Circuit Court in Westmoreland for Mario Deane. It’s a likkle spliff that carried Mario Deane to prison, and he never come back out of it,” said Campbell.

“No more of that because of the policies put forward by Mark Jefferson Golding.”

While legalisation has opened doors for some people, many grassroots Jamaicans, especially those historically penalised for marijuana-related offences, are still struggling to access the legal market.

Members of the Rastafarian community, who are now able to possess ganja as a sacramental right, have been calling for the Government to replace the Dangerous Drugs Act, which still imposes barriers on small-scale ganja cultivators, as well as to get the Cannabis Licensing Authority to speed up the issuance of licences to local entrepreneurs.

editorial@gleanerjm.com