Ganja study completed By Lynford Simpson,
Staff Reporter
THE NATIONAL Commission on Ganja has completed its hearings into arguments for the decriminalisation of the use of the herb and is to submit its report and recommendations to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson within the next two weeks. "Unless we ask for (more) time we are to submit (the report) on or before the 6th of August," Professor Barry Chevannes, head of the Commission told The Gleaner yesterday. He said that date marked nine months from the time the Commission began hearings last November. The hearings were held in all parishes. According to Professor Chevannes, most of the 250 persons who appeared before the Commission were in favour of decriminalising its use. He pointed out, however, that the seven-member Commission will not be swayed by "majority feeling". "What we are looking at are the issues that people raised both for and against and to use that to determine our recommendation," he stated. The recommendations will also be guided by the numerous written submissions received by the Commission; the advice of legal experts; and from discussions that were held with officials of the Netherlands Government. Professor Chevannes and his team were asked by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson in November to examine the possible economic, cultural, social and international effects of decriminalising the drug for limited personal use. But a vote in favour of decriminalisation is not likely to go down well with National Security and Justice Minister K.D. Knight, who has openly criticised the work of the Commission. "I don't make any bones about it. The lobby talking about the legalisation of drugs...I am personally against them," he told last month's 58th annual conference of the Jamaica Police Federation in Montego Bay. Professor Chevannes explained that if the drug were decriminalised, individuals would be able to smoke the herb in the confines of their homes and to use it in religious rites without police interference. The move to decriminalise ganja is seen in some quarters as a move by Government to free the backlog of cases in the courts where individuals are charged for smoking a ganja spliff (cigarette). At least one group, the National Alliance for the Legalisation of Ganja, has urged the Government to go further by legalising the drug. The group boycotted the recent hearings as a mark of protest over the "Government's failure to go far enough".
|
