‘Legalise weed, Dr Rowley’

YVONNE WEBB

The One Heart Caribbean concert featuring Jamaican reggae sensation Chronixx transformed into a platform to call on government “to legalise the weed.”

Artistes, local and from across the Caribbean, presented a common front on this topic as they took to the stage at Skinner Park, San Fernando which was converted into Legacy Park, for the highly anticipated concert which met and surpassed expectations on Friday night.

The artistes also used the stage to call for an end to violence, especially the killing of the innocent and the freedom of Jamaican dancehall star Buju Banton. Banton is set to be released from his 10-year jail sentence in the United States for his role in a cocaine deal in December 2018.

Supporting local acts such as Freetown Collective, Ivan Marley, Marlon “Ganja Farmer” Asher, Prophet Benjamin, all roused the packed park with their call.

Marley, the DJ and co-host, called on “Babylon” (police) to give the audience a “15-minutes free time, to burn it right now” as he blasted some of his lyrics, “Patrick Manning never legalise ganja, no reply from Kamla Persad-Bissessar, since Rowley is the new prime minister we calling on him to legalise the marijuana.”

Saying he hoped Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley did not make the same mistakes like his predecessors, Point Fortin native, Prophet Benjamin said he longed for the day when he could see a cannabis trees in every back yard.

He said he wanted to smoke on the promenade.

Chronixx said too many people were institutionalised for small amounts as he supported the Trini acts call for the legalising of the herb, which is being done in several Caribbean and other first world countries for its medicinal value. Jamaica has decriminalised the use of small amounts of marijuana.

Contacted for a response, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said he was not surprised by the call since it was not a new request. He said the decriminalisation and legalisation of the drug is one on which Government does not yet have a position.

“The research on that topic is one which appears to be in multiple places at the same time. Professor Velma Newtown of the Caricom Justice Sector, the legal affairs committee of Caricom, has actually called for a contribution on this topic, so it is a Caricom-wide discussion.

“Secondly, there are interest groups, including UWI professor Rosemarie Bell Antoine, who have called for a discussion on it. The Centre for Economic Studies has also called for a discussion on it. The Ministry of National Security, which is closer to the Government, is conducting an investigation into the data behind it. The number of people with offences, the kinds of facts that we have.”

Al-Rawi said Government is in the information gathering stage and after that has been crystallised, Government would then have an opportunity to consider its policy.

“That is something, obviously, the Cabinet would have to be invited to consider. I can tell you right now, it is a work in progress. It’s a real issue around the Caribbean and otherwise, but the Government itself has not formed a view on this particular topic yet, because it is really something you have to have regard for all of the factors.”

“Talking about the decriminalisation of a dangerous drug like cannabis is something that has significant ramification,” he said questioning, “ Do you want your public sector to have that as to why a bus driver may be high at a particular point in time?

“Where you put your limits and boundaries in this conversation is not a simple product and it requires us to look at jurisdictions where they have done it.” He cited Jamaica as a place where it has been done pointing out they are now trying to work out the kinks in the system.

“So Government itself does not have a view nor can it have a view until the data is taken to Cabinet in the form of policy. When I led the charge on the abolition of child marriage, I came with data.

This is something which is equally important. We are doing a whole exercise in the prison and elsewhere because this is a conversation which must be data driven.”