THE EDITOR, Sir:
ALTHOUGH WIDELY consumed in Jamaica, cannabis is currently untaxed and unregulated, as in other countries. This situation is comparable to alcohol prohibition in the United States of America (1920-1933) when considerable demand persisted despite the lack of an available legal supply. Rampant official corruption is an inevitable and serious outcome of continuing high demand for a black market commodity.
Other important costs include the diversion of scarce law enforcement resources from the policing of violent and other serious crime. Research has shown that criminal penalties for young people caught with cannabis lead to major unintended social costs but has little impact on their subsequent use of the drug.
CIVIL PENALTIES FOR CANNABIS
In recent years, many countries have begun to replace criminal with civil penalties for cannabis while continuing with prohibition. This is at least a step in the right direction. The major international drug treaty, the 1961 Single Convention, states in part that "A party shall, if in its opinion the prevailing conditions in its country render it the most appropriate means of protecting the public health and welfare, prohibit [cannabis]".
This must surely mean that if Jamaica considers that the prevailing conditions in the country do not suggest that cannabis prohibition is the most appropriate means of protecting the public health and welfare, other options should be considered.
The stronger the arguments that cannabis causes significant health and other harms, the more important it is to replace regulation by the Al Capones of this world with official controls. If alcohol and tobacco, the two drugs responsible for most harm, why leave cannabis untaxed and unregulated?
I am, etc.,
Dr. ALEX WODAK
awodak@stvincents.com.au
Director, Alcohol and Drug Service,
St. Vincent's Hospital,
Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010,
Australia
