Decriminalise it?

The regional conversation on the decriminalisation of cannabis would appear to be firmly re-fixed again in the public domain. We use the term “re-fixed” advisedly since, while the latest initiative in this context might be reasonably attributed to the Honourable Prime Minister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, readers may recall an earlier suggestion to similar effect by one of our puisne judges, Mr. Justice Randall Worrell, as well as sundry others over the years from individuals such as the late Dr. Ikael Tafari, the late Jamaican reggae artiste, Mr. Peter (Peter Tosh) McIntosh who melodically urged officialdom to “legalise it”, and founder of the Playboy empire, Mr. Hugh Hefner, among others.

To be fair to him, Dr. Gonsalves has sought to make it clear that he is not suggesting wholesale decriminalisation, but decriminalisation for medical purposes only. He is reported to have told a press conference, “As you notice, I am not calling for the decriminalisation of ganja…the longer we wait to give serious regional consideration to this subject, the further behind we will lag in the inevitable legitimisation of medical marijuana globally…In the end, our Caribbean would consume the medical/health, cosmetic and other products derived from marijuana legally grown and produced in the USA…I am calling for an informed discussion on medical marijuana as a commercial industry, as has happened in the United States…”

A close analysis of these statements will establish clearly that Mr. Gonsalves call is a very limited one, based solely on the economic benefits to be derived from the export of marijuana as a medical product and bearing no relation at all to those calls precedent or subsequent to his, some of which are grounded either in the ostensibly discriminatory official treatment of marijuana as opposed to alcohol, or in clearing the backlog in the criminal courts, as recently argued by Chief Justice Archie of Trinidad & Tobago.

Equally, there are the perennial arguments against any relaxation of the current legal proscription against this substance. One letter writer to the Trinidad Express was in no doubt as to the likely consequence of his Chief Justice’s call. He queried, “Is the judiciary now admitting that it is incapable of providing its mandated service to the preservation of a law-abiding society…Marijuana’s use and production have introduced many of our youth into the underworld and into gangs…”

As is its wont, CARICOM officials have tasked the Secretariat with undertaking research into decriminalisation and presenting that research by February 2014.

We stand on the side of increased knowledge on those issues that confront our daily existence and hence, we welcome the launching of the regional conversation and research on this issue. At the same time, we are not unmindful of the instinctual national and, seemingly’ regional aversion to change; a reality that is starkly exemplified by the reaction of one regional Cabinet Minister who, in one breath, declared both his grudging acceptance of the need for the regional discussion and his certainty that his particular jurisdiction would not be considering the matter favourably.

We must bear in mind too, the seemingly inherent aversion to legislative change in the region; a looming pitfall in a matter that would require universal statutory reform in each of the region’s jurisdictions. Given the niggardly reaction hitherto to regionally inspired legislative reform by the individual member states, we are forced to remain cynical as to the likelihood of decriminalisation becoming a reality anytime soon in any one of them.

Of course, this is not to gainsay the initiation of the proposed “regional conversation” nor of the commissioned research on the matter. It is just that some matters seem bigger than what we, as a region, possess the nous to handle.