Dear Editor,

The use of marijuana for recreational purposes cannot be a "good" thing. That should not be a basis for its decriminalization or legalization.

The issue is whether criminalization of the drug, given the enormous violence associated with the 'policing' by criminals of its supply, combined with the corruption facilitated by the sheer enormity of the profits arising therefrom, is or is not a greater societal evil than decriminalization or legalization. The evidence is overwhelming that criminalization produces the greater evil.

Yours faithfully, Romain Pitt

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While the norm in most places nowadays is to run into a pharmacy and pick up some medication if one is feeling ill, the truth is that pharmacies, as we know them, have only been around for a couple hundred years.

People, however, have been on planet Earth for thousands of years.

What then did our ancestors use for medicine when they got sick? The answer, which many people have forgotten, is that many of the original medicines were plant-based. Humans, through trial and error, careful observation of the animals around them, and experimentation, learned over time which plants could heal and which could harm. This knowledge, obviously, was very valuable and carefully passed on from generation to generation.

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A government led by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) would review the decriminalisation of marijuana, according to General Secretary Joseph Harmon, who says research needs to be done.

"We as the APNU, what we are committing to is a review of the laws as it relates to the use and sentencing policies as in relation to marijuana," Harmon told reporters on Friday.

Harmon said the coalition realises that many of the country's young men are languishing in the prison system because they were caught with small amounts of the drug and a study needs to be undertaken to ascertain if this has been beneficial to the country's development.

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Here's the biggest irony of Tuesday's mid-term elections: the US government will continue demanding that Mexico, Colombia and other countries fight the marijuana trade as part of its "war on drugs," while Washington voters have just approved making pot legal in the US capital.

Under an initiative passed by DC voters in Tuesday's elections, residents aged over 21 will be able to possess two ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants for recreational consumption outside federal lands, pending congressional approval of the measure.

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Dear Editor,

Over the last years, there has been much said about police brutality towards members of our society, more so the poorer class. The first police force when established in London by Sir Robert Peel was designed to protect the property of the rich from attacks by the criminal, mostly poor element. The police attacks noted are just reminders of the real role of the force. It is not by accident they are called a 'Force.'

There is a huge gap in wealth between the rich and the poor . As a consequence, the poor have increased their criminal activities to reduce this gap. These acts of murder and robbery should not be condoned. What else can the poor do to redress this imbalance in wealth distribution?

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Dear Editor,

The President was acting in one of his more playful roles recently. It was reported that he seeks to make the country "totally inhospitable for drug traffickers. (KN, June 27). Acting aside, he is most unconvincing. I do not believe the President; I do not believe he has the will or skill to live out to that loud far-reaching statement. Quite candidly, this is simply more hot air from a president, government, and party that has an inexhaustible supply of such air.

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Dear Editor,

Regarding your thoughtful June 14 editorial, the move to decriminalize marijuana in Jamaica will definitely be worth watching. Guyana would be wise to follow suit.

United States President Barack Obama is allowing marijuana legalization to move forward. The next president may not be so enlightened.

Guyana should legalize marijuana now, before the US starts using its superpower status to bully other nations once again.

It's not just about opportunistic timing, it's the right thing to do. Marijuana prohibition is indefensible. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success.

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Last month the University of the West Indies hosted a three-day Cannabis Conference at its Mona campus, co-sponsored by UWI and the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force (CCMRTF). Scientists and researchers from several countries addressed the likely economic implications of decriminalization, as well as the drug's sacramental uses in Rastafarian culture, and the commercial exploitation of its unquestioned medicinal benefits. Building on the Jamaican government's earlier gestures towards decriminalization, the conference ended with a 12-point roadmap that could, with sufficient political will, produce new legislation within a year. When Caricom leaders gather in Antigua next month they may wish to consider similar policies.

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GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - Caricom researchers have found that decriminalizing marijuana and exploring its use for medicinal purposes could help boost the region's sluggish economy.

Caricom leaders are expected to talk about the preliminary report during the two-day summit that began Monday on St. Vincent. The report was released Friday to The Associated Press.

Experts said the Caribbean already has a built-in competitive advantage with marijuana cultivation, noting that Jamaican researchers have launched a company that produces therapeutic and cosmetic products derived from the plants.

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Dear Editor,

I am a criminologist who came to Guyana for 10 days last month to visit friends in the Corentyne area. I am also a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) which is an international group of current and former peace officers who are dedicated to drawing attention to the devastating consequences of drug prohibition. I made several observations during my trip which do not bode well for Guyana's efforts to control the global drug trade.

Although we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Guyanese people, there were two events which we found quite disturbing. Both involved being stopped on the Rupert Craig Highway by heavily armed men. Had it not been for our driver who quickly identified them as military personnel or, on the second occasion, as police officers, we had no way of knowing that the intervention was legally sanctioned.

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LONDON - In the coming days and weeks, critics will try to minimize what voters in the US states of Colorado and Washington accomplished by backing referenda permitting marijuana legalization and regulation. They will likely produce puns and editorial gags about a legislative coup for "hippies" hosting patchouli-scented victory celebrations. They will be tempted to reduce the story to witticisms about hedonism and decadence in America's free-thinking mountain states. But such reactions will be wrong.

In fact, America's disastrous preoccupation with marijuana prohibition is more than a story of a relatively harmless substance being sent into legislative exile. Rather, it is part of the larger story of the country's misguided "war on drugs," which has resulted in the incarceration of more than two million people at any given time. It is a story of lawmakers branding young people with criminal records for actions that they may well have taken in their own youth but without getting caught.

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