PM: Families destroyed over single joint

THE PRIME Minister has lamented that many families have been destroyed because someone smoked a joint and was charged.

He said because of such charges some men had lost their jobs, could not pay maintenance for a child and were incarcerated.

"When it happens children suffer. Their father is in jail because someone smoke a marijuana joint. That is what we are trying to get rid of."

He said while the decriminalisation legislation would protect children from its use Government was also conscious children were being hurt by cannabis being illegal.

He was contributing to debate on the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Bill and the Cannabis Control Bill in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Most of the population want cannabis to be decriminalised and not legalised,he said.

"Some say legalise and let it burn freely.

"That is not the position of the majority. The majority view is clear that we should not legalise. That may change in the future."

He said Government had accepted that the criminality attached to the use of the plant ought not to continue.

He added that in TT both people with no means and low social standing, as well as people of means, bought and used cannabis but it was largely only people of low social means who were ending up in court and before the penal system and whose lives could be destroyed.

"Somebody else do(ing) the same thing might end up as chief justice."

He recalled that when he visited a prominent university in California he was shocked to see the widespread use among the "cream of educated Americans," including the faculty.

"It was not only available to the dumb and stupid. In Trinidad, people going to jail for that."