Cannabis/ganja
Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA has no immediate plans to follow the lead set by Britain which last week softened its position on the controversial herb, ganja.
In fact local drug enforcement officials have dismissed the move as simply irrelevant to Jamaican society and security operations.
"It doesn't affect or change anything for us," head of the Police Narcotics Division, Senior Superintendent Carl Williams said. "(Theirs) is a different jurisdiction entirely. They have their way of doing things and we have ours. As long as it remains on the books (as an offence) we will continue to enforce it." His view was supported by public relations officer with the Security Ministry Donovan Nelson, who said that there are no plans for any policy changes.
"The situation is still the same where persons visiting from elsewhere or leaving the island would be subject to the laws as they now stand," he said.
According to a report from the British Broadcasting Corporation, (BBC) as early as July 2003, cannabis/ganja will be reclassified as a "less dangerous drug to free-up police resources to fight hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine."
The herb is to be treated less harshly as a C class drug rather than class B. In addition the controversial cannabis experiment, currently under way in London's Brixton, is to be extended across London.
The decision was announced in British parliament by Home Secretary, David Blunkett, and sanctioned by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In an underlying caution statement Secretary Blunkett reportedly added, "We will not legalise or decriminalise any drugs, nor do we envisage a time when this will be appropriate."
Earlier this year medical experts in the United Kingdom had published an official report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), commissioned by Home Secretary David Blunkett last October. The report had firmly supported a decision to downgrade cannabis (ganja) from class B to class C legal status but warned that it was not a harmless drug.
But United States officials, worried about the perceived effect on the international drug trafficking, had warned Jamaica against any move to decriminalise marijuana.
The change by British policy makers will put cannabis on par with anti-depressants and steroids (and) possession of small amounts will no longer be considered an "arrestable offence."
Under the new British arrangements police would, however, retain the power to arrest marijuana users in certain "aggravated" cases, such as when the drug is smoked near children. The maximum sentence for dealers of class B and C drugs has been raised from five years to 14 years.
Back home, responding to the notion that relaxing of the laws would result in more time being spent on more serious drugs, SSP Williams said that this was not a "major concern here". He explained that the Division had been so organised that there was adequate focus on each illegal drug area. Earlier this year, a ganja committee was commissioned by Prime Minister P.J Patterson.
Consistent with the considerations of the United Kingdom authorities, the local committee identified general concerns which included the "inability to suppress it by legal means; and the wasteful use made of the criminal justice system, in terms of its human and financial resources."
But Paul Burke, executive member of the National Alliance for the Legalisation of Ganja (NALG) hailed the move as a positive one.
"It is a step in the right direction, but as with everything of this nature it must be accompanied by public education," he said. Chairman of the governing PNP's region 3 division, Burke explained that the NALG had been highly critical of the Ganja Commission's terms of references.
"While we (NALG) are against persons smoking it publicly, we have always been advocates for legalisation of ganja in people's private homes and premises," he said. Recently Jamaica signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK to co-operate in drug enforcement activity across the region.
Within the framework of the MOU the British Government, through the Customs and Excise Department, will provide technical assistance to the Jamaican police in the form of the Ionscan Itemiser Contraband Detraction technology, and equipment to detect drug traffickers at Jamaica's two international airports.
