The potency of marijuana since its decriminalisation in 2015 has reportedly increased threefold, which may give some users higher doses than they can manage, a chief researcher at the Caribbean Toxicology Unit (CARITOX) at The University of West...
On August 14, 2010, the nation awoke to a bloodbath in Tredegar Park, Spanish Town, St Catherine. Eight people, among them an 11-year-old girl, lay bloody and lifeless – the aftermath of a dozen men storming several homes in a predawn attack. The...
Used for shopping, storage, garbage and waste disposal, giving and receiving of goods, and just about anything, the popularly called scandal bag has been the go-to choice for Jamaicans for decades. Banned or not, the use of plastic ‘black scandal’...
There is a small informal community on the outskirts of Seaview Gardens in St Andrew, where residents live isolated from the rest of the area on bushy swamp lands strewn with board and concrete dwellings. Here, there are no roads. Dirt tracks,...
Defined as the illegal occupation of land and/or buildings, it is estimated that approximately 20 per cent of Jamaica’s population resides in squatter settlements. The matter of informal settlements has remained a perennial problem for decades,...
Droves of Jamaican students have relinquished their right to an education, lured away by meagre earnings they have clung to since hustling illegally during the postponement of face-to-face classes because of COVID-19 some two years ago. Some are...
So heavy was the pain after Marcia Johnson* buried her mother at the May Pen Cemetery in Kingston that it took her a while to revisit the grave. Almost three years later, the grief was manageable enough for her to make the trek. She was shocked to...
They are listed as public beaches by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), but newcomers are warned against venturing on to their sands as it could quickly end in robbery or death. These are said to be the funnels through which...
The Government yesterday sought to rectify aspects of a budget released by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) which inaccurately itemised an $8-million spend on the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last month. The detailed budget...
As the shaken soda oozed from the half-opened cap, grade four student Shania Acorn* gasped with disappointment. To her, it was as if liquid gold was being wasted, forever lost as the carbonated beverage muddied the ground below. “That’s the best...
Two years ago this time, the municipality of Portmore, St Catherine, was battling the dreaded COVID-19, isolated behind strict quarantine lines and embroiled in an outbreak dogging one of its major economic lifelines – call centres. Under tight...
It’s a service that’s supposed to be free, but for many Jamaicans finding it difficult to locate a justice of the peace (JP) who knows them well enough to certify documents or write glowing character references, for between $150 and $1,500 on the...
In their world, nothing is safe or certain, and it is always wise to have a suitcase packed and ready for relocation. To be otherwise could be deadly. This is life for some 326 Jamaicans in the island’s witness protection programme – the majority...
With witness intimidation still a major concern dogging the justice system, the country shelled out more than $758 million on its witness protection programme between April 2016 and March 2021, with the bulk of the spend recently being on gang...
The best are smooth and amicable, cordial and easy, while the worst are inflamed with raw resentment, lies, and sometimes, even hatred. Yet Jamaicans are increasingly filing for divorce – a record 4,381 last year alone – as fingers point to COVID-...
The feat is not for the impatient or claustrophobic, and at peak hours, it involves long waits, pushing, shoving, and the deadly COVID-19 disease lurking inches from those who dare. For many Jamaican commuters, however, there is little choice –...
The police have now zeroed in on reports that lottery scammers have taken a foothold in the used-car industry to launder their ill-gotten gains. Sources say they especially have their eyes set on Mandeville in Manchester, which has seen a...
The final six minutes were the most excruciating for Kelly-Ann Tulloch on Wednesday night. For the past two weeks, she had not slept, as images of gunfights and bombs exploding on her son in Ukraine burned deep in her mind. Finally, her prayers...
An autopsy has returned inconclusive into the death of a newborn girl allegedly buried by her 13-year-old mother and grandmother in St Thomas, an eastern parish in which half the persons most wanted by police are suspected sex offenders. At least...
The criminal underworld hidden beneath the busy St Andrew North Police Division is a maze of wealth, bloodshed, and extortion – a melting pot of business owners, organised criminals, and their hybrids. Beneath the eye, investigators say a man...
There is a drastic increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19-positive patients at the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) in St Andrew, with a record of 29 admissions since numbers skyrocketed at the start of the year, putting a strain on the...
They are tasked with taking care of households and their occupants, but for many Jamaican housekeepers, the homes they serve are increasingly becoming perilous dens of sexual abuse and maltreatment, especially since the onset of the coronavirus...
Olympic Way is home to the first baby born at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital on Christmas Day, after mother Denesha Simmonds delivered a bouncing boy shortly after 1:00 yesterday morning. Thabang Jordine, at roughly seven pounds, entered the world...
Christmas for the past 22 years has been less than merry for Odean Brown, a customer care representative at the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) who has been fighting to keep her leg after a motor vehicle accident in Trelawny in 1999. This year...
Tomorrow, the Cabinet will discuss Jamaica’s plans to address the new omicron variant of COVID-19 that now has the world on high alert, triggering travel bans, and which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared to be “of concern”, Health...
