THE EDITOR, Sir:
His name and where on the island he grows his crops isn't important, though it could easily be the same as yours or mine and he could live and work a stone's throw away from almost anyone there. What's most important about him and the hundreds, if not thousands, like him in Jamaica today, is that the government body studying the decriminalisation/legalisation of ganja realise that this man and the decent people around him have been exploited all their lives because of bad-written laws and the stigma that comes with criminality.
To him and most Jamaican farmers, ganja is no more than another of many herbs, grown for its many uses. It is not an 'evil weed' as suggested by religious zealots with narrow minds and very little life experience, nor is it some 'magic carpet' ride experience and a solution to all the world's problems. Like most things, it has its uses and limits and people should learn them.
Moreover, to many of those same farmers, those who would control or try to eradicate its use are as mad as those who would risk life and limb and spend fortunes trying to smuggle it off the island.
Why shouldn't the country that he loves so dearly decriminalise the possession and use of small quantities of ganja by Jamaicans on the island? Why not let him and the hundreds, if not thousands, of others like him arise tomorrow and see a new day dawn in Jamaica, a day in which he and his friends can grow and use a little 'herb' for themselves without being called 'criminals' and without having Babylon in their faces?
I am, etc.,
Ed McCOY
mmhobo48@juno.com
Bokeelia, FL
Via Go-Jamaica
