Jamaica Pubdate: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 Source: Jamaica Gleaner, The (Jamaica) Copyright: 2001 The Gleaner Company Limited Contact: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/493 Author: Desmond Henry Note: Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) AN INVITATION TO SOCIAL MAYHEM TREASURE BEACH: IF THE recommendations of the Ganja Commission are to be taken seriously, then Jamaica will soon become the world's most sanctimonious sanctuary on earth. Every single piece of real estate will be fenced in, and louts and idlers will gather in droves behind the fences blowing their brains out, making asses of themselves and posing a threat to the rest of us. I have never read or heard of such an open invitation to ruin or self-inflicted disaster by any country at any time. It is as if part of the Commission's terms of reference was to imagine themselves being shot into space, with no one else around, and then recommending what they think should be done with the rest of their life in isolation. Did this Commission really have a sense of the country in which they reside, and who and what they're dealing with? In one breath, they're saying its illegal to possess ganja. Yet in another, they say that if somehow you get it and you fence yourself in, then you are free to smoke your head off. The act of fencing automatically makes you a sanctuary. Look out, therefore, for every square inch of rural land to be declared sanctuaries, free and safe from the reach of the law, but open to others in the name of dope. Every obeah man will now regain his pride of place once lost to science and medicine. Forget about going to school. Who needs that? School is for the unwise, those with nothing to do and without a sense of purpose. Those who attend school need someone else to tell them what to do. We smokers get our wisdom from the herb. The young need not worry 'Bout being left behind All they need is a hurry Oh how to blow their mind. I have great personal and professional respect for Professor Barry Chevannes, but I ask myself whether he was unwittingly duped into being misled, by a mission impossible. Does the Commission realise that Jamaica is part of a world system, including being a signatory to international treaties and obligations? The US Embassy quite rightly has warned of the consequences of impulsive, unitary action toward treaty obligations. And why not? If ganja with all its personal, collective and social harm is to be embraced with such gusto, can harder drugs be far behind? Just think of the additional pressures that will be applied to the already overburdened health system. Can you not imagine the excruciating pressures that will now be placed on the system by a multitude of zealots? Look at the mounting demands for beds, treatment, personnel, counselling and rehabilitation. Where are these to come from? And who pays? And how do you prevent victims from committing other mind-altering offences against people and property. And what of the other direct and indirect harms of smoking? In an age when all forms of smoking have been proven to be so disastrous to humans, what useful purpose can be served by these recommendations? A society already suffused with idleness, illiteracy, inertia, laziness and excuses, can well do without such arrant thoughtlessness. The suggestions are most unrealistic and should be dismissed out of hand. Otherwise they will constitute an invitation to social mayhem. And those who wish to quote poetic sanctimonious rubbish about "If I must die" should go ahead and do just that. All I say, is that you have no authority to take the rest of the society with you. And while government is busy considering the recommendations to decriminalise ganja, might I suggest that they consider at the same time, the criminalising of folly. THE BOTTOM LINE: Folly is often more cruel in its consequences, than malice is in its intent. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager