THE EDITOR, Sir: Why the tiptoeing on the medical marijuana industry?

Recently, Senator A.J. Nicholson, QC, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, asserted that legalisation of marijuana was not on the Government's agenda. Are we to understand that the decriminalisation of marijuana for medical purposes is also not on the agenda?

Since 2001, there has been much discourse on the legalisation of marijuana, and, recently, the decriminalisation of marijuana for medical purposes has occurred. Apparently, the ubiquitous discussions on the medical-marijuana industry remain piffling. Implicitly, the minister's assertion serves to obfuscate the issue and scuttle the progress made so far, rather than to fast-track appropriate legislation to support the potential industry.

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THE EDITOR, Sir:

Over the last few months, the debate as to whether marijuana should be decriminalised for medicinal purposes has gained traction. Recently, Dr Fenton Ferguson, minister of health, has asserted explicitly that he will endorse the decriminalisation of marijuana for medicinal purposes, an encouraging position. The minister should be commended for his boldness and, hopefully, he will convince his Cabinet colleagues of the economic imperative of the medical marijuana industry.

Jamaica needs to act with alacrity in the decriminalisation of marijuana for medical purposes so as to exploit both medical and business opportunities. Recent findings by a Don Anderson poll provide compelling evidence that an overwhelming majority, 55 per cent of those interviewed, strongly called for the Government to intervene and promote the use of marijuana in medicine and ensure that its recreational usage is properly regulated. This survey validates the long-held cherished view that marijuana possesses medicinal properties.

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - A prominent Jamaican scientist and entrepreneur is launching a company that aims to capitalize on the growing international market for medical marijuana.

Henry Lowe is a researcher who specializes in medicinal chemistry and the chairman of an institute that develops therapeutic and cosmetic products from various plants.

Lowe is calling his new venture "Medicanja." He says it will focus on medicinal compounds in marijuana, known locally as "ganja," and will not violate any laws or treaties.

Marijuana has been pervasive but prohibited on the Caribbean island since 1913. But increasingly vocal advocates say Jamaica could give its chronically struggling economy a big boost by embracing cannabis-related investing and loosening up drug laws.

Lowe asserted Wednesday that Jamaica has potential to become a powerhouse in medical marijuana and health tourism.

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The Editor, Sir:

We are embarking on passing legislation to legalise marijuana for medical purposes. Why would we need the opinions of ordinary citizens to make a decision in this regard? My opinion, for example, would not be necessary, as I am not an expert in the field of medicine or medical research.

Let scientists conduct the necessary studies and experiments to ascertain the true value of marijuana to the medical field. If, at all, there is significant benefit to be gained, by all means, let us proceed in that direction.

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(AP) - California's Napa and Sonoma valleys have their fancy wine tours, and travelers flock to Scotland to sample the fine single-malt whiskeys. But in Jamaica, farmers are offering a different kind of trip for a different type of connoisseur.

Call them "ganja" tours: smoky, mystical - and technically illegal - journeys to some of the Caribbean island's hidden cannabis plantations, where pot tourists can sample such strains as "purple kush" and "pineapple skunk."

The tours pass through places like Nine Mile, the tiny hometown of legendary reggae musician and famous pot-lover Bob Marley. Here, in Jamaica's verdant central mountains, dreadlocked men escort curious visitors to a farm where deep-green marijuana plants grow out of the reddish soil. Similar tours are offered just outside the western resort town of Negril, where a marijuana mystique has drawn weed-smoking vacationers for decades.

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Farmers in Jamaica Are Offering a Different Kind of Travel Experience.

(AP) - Call them ganja tours: smoky, mystical - and technically illegal - journeys to some of the island's hidden cannabis plantations.

The tours pass through places like Nine Mile, the tiny hometown of the reggae legend and famous pot lover Bob Marley. Here, in Jamaica's verdant central mountains, dreadlocked men escort curious visitors to farms where marijuana plants grow. Similar tours are offered just outside the western resort town of Negril.

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More politicians need to show some backbone in making an economic case for legalising marijuana. For years, marijuana-legalisation advocates in Jamaica have trotted out argument after argument in support of their cause: Prohibition doesn't stop people from using the drug. Pot's not as harmful as legal substances like alcohol or cigarettes. Deadly street/gang violence stems from marijuana's illegality. The youth disparity in marijuana arrests amounts to jobs discrimination. Marijuana has scientifically proven medicinal benefits. Lives can be ruined by just one minor pot arrest.

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We are not surprised that there should be some disquiet at Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's proposal for drug testing of student athletes.

For the idea, at first glance, can appear intrusive, invasive of privacy and with the potential to leave psychological scars and a long-term blight on the life prospects of a youngster who might be branded a drug cheat. The better option, the critics will argue, is to educate students, generally those engaged in competitive sport, about the danger of drug use, and the consequences when caught with performance enhancers.

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Regarding Dr Andre Haughton's June 19 op-ed, the global drug war is largely a war on marijuana. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of Anglo-cultural norms, ganja would be legal.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful, but criminal records are inappropriate as health interventions are ineffective as deterrents.

Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current world record holder in citizens incarcerated. Here in the United States, police searches on public transit, drug-sniffing dogs in schools, and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties, while failing to prevent marijuana use. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal.

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Dr Andre Haughton

Where is the world headed?

INVESTORS WORLDWIDE are seeking to maximise earnings by investing in markets with the most lucrative projected earnings.

Last Friday, a group of Wall Street investors seeking to invest in legal marijuana ventures, including that for medicinal purposes, compared the current upsurge in the marijuana industry to the technology boom of the 1990s. According to researchers in Washington, a fully functioning marijuana industry could earn the state little over US$1 billion per year.

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THE Canadian High Commission has apologised to the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) for a botched naval exercise in March, which saw live 50-calibre rounds being fired in Jamaican coastal waters by two of that country's naval vessels and the interference with a boat in which former Prime Minister Bruce Golding was travelling.

The disclosure came on Tuesday as the JDF sought to clear the air on the incident, which the Canadian media said has caused that country much embarrassment.

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Ottawa - Bad maps are being blamed after Canadian naval reservists participating in the U.S.-led war on drugs last year sparked a diplomatic flap by firing their weapons and intercepting fishing trawlers in Jamaican waters - without Jamaica's permission.

The embarrassing incident, which has never before been publicly reported, broke international maritime law - not the first time legal questions have been raised about Canada's increasing involvement in the drug war.

On March 27, 2012, HMCS Goose Bay and Kingston were patrolling south of Jamaica as part of Operation Caribbe, Canada's contribution to an ongoing, U.S.-led anti-drug trafficking mission in the Caribbean and East Pacific.

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Bad maps are being blamed after Canadian naval reservists participating in the U.S.-led war on drugs last year sparked a diplomatic flap by firing their weapons and intercepting fishing trawlers in Jamaican waters - without Jamaica's permission.

The embarrassing incident, which has never before been publicly reported, broke international maritime law - not the first time legal questions have been raised about Canada's increasing involvement in the drug war.

On March 27, 2012, the HMCS Goose Bay and Kingston were patrolling south of Jamaica as part of Operation Caribbe, Canada's contribution to an ongoing, U.S.-led anti-drug trafficking mission in the Caribbean and East Pacific.

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'Cannabis Keeps Viral Progression Down'

DIRECTOR of the Caribbean Drug and Alcohol Research Institute Dr Marcus Day believes the time has come for regional governments to legalise marijuana to counteract the spread of HIV.

"I think we should regulate cannabis (marijuana) use the same way we regulate alcohol use, the same way they are talking about regulating it in the states of Washington and Colorado in America," said Day, an HIV/AIDS specialist and coordinator of the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition.

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"Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private or personal use." - - President Jimmy Carter, message to Congress, August 2, 1977

I don't know if it has anything to do with the growing number of American states that are voting to decriminalise ganja, but the great ganja debate is surfacing here again.

In April of this year, I successfully infused myself into a conversation two young men were having about the similarities in a recent experience that came to an end in the Half-Way Tree RM Court that day. Both men were jailed when they were found with a ganja spliff. They spent nine days in the jail, pleaded guilty and were charged $100 each. So that should be that. But not really.

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If the years of Prohibition taught the United States nothing else, it should have been that laws for which there is little, or no, popular consensus are not only likely to be treated with disdain, but also breed corruption.

So, during the ban on alcohol, speakeasies flourished and mobsters like Al Capone 'owned' law-enforcement officers and public officials. Dry America was a boon for the Mafia.

Nearly 80 years after the lifting of Prohibition, America is fighting, and losing, another of these battles of morality. Only, this time, the fight has spread far beyond its borders, with deleterious consequences for many of its neighbours, including Jamaica.

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IF JAMAICANS were to be asked to vote whether the use of marijuana should be decriminalised, at least one clergyman would be among those saying aye.

The Reverend Karl Johnson yesterday told The Gleaner that it is time Jamaica move towards decriminalising the use of marijuana.

"I think many of us have long advocated for that in circumstances that would point to marijuana not being used for export," Johnson told The Gleaner yesterday.

His comments come against the background of a Sunday Gleaner article on the weekend in which local parliamentarians have supported a move by two US states, Washington and Colorado, to decriminalise and regulate the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults over 21.

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WHILE respecting the rights of individuals to enjoy a safe and healthy environment, this column has been advocating legislative and judicial reforms in the way we treat users of marijuana (ganja) in Jamaica. In fact, this column has been bolder than just advocating common-sense amendments to the present laws that govern the cultivation, distribution and possession of the plant. It has suggested that the production and use of the weed (to qualified adults) be part of any recuperative health tourism plans we might be contemplating.

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If there was anywhere on Earth where it was legal to blaze the chalice, one would think that that place would be Jamaica, popularised by our own legendary ambassadors such as Bob Marley (in singles such as Kaya), Peter Tosh (Legalise It), Yellow Man (Sensemilla), Rita Marley (One Draw, more popularly known as I Wanna Get High) and Buju Banton (Driva).

After the most recent recommendations to decriminalise weed, made by national commissions set up in the late 1990s by the government, namely that of former prime ministers P.J. Patterson and, more recently, Bruce Golding, to study the phenomenon of this herb, it would appear that support is growing in Parliament. Justice Minister Mark Golding and Opposition Senator Tom Tavares-Finson have shown their cards.

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THE EDITOR, Sir:

A few Fridays ago, the issue of the continued criminalisation of ganja usage was raised in the Senate.

According to Senator Tom Tavares-Finson, "On a weekly basis, ... approximately 300 young Jamaican males receive criminal records for minute quantities of ganja. It means that we are creating a pool of young persons who cannot be employed, who cannot join the military, who cannot join the police force and, indeed, cannot, in some instances, seek further education."

What is it about marijuana that makes a lot of politicians hallucinate? The faintest whiff of 'the weed of madness' (according to US government propaganda) causes them to see distorted images of things that aren't there and never were: justice, law and order, community protection, re-election. But most of them don't see the obvious.

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