CARICOM to create ganja commission
(CNS): As attitudes towards the recreational and medical use of ganja begin to change around the world, leaders from the Caribbean Community were engaged in intense discussions on the subject at the Intersessional Meeting held in St Vincent and the Grenadines this week. The heads of government have mandated that a regional commission be established to address the issues that have now been identified in relation to the use of the drug, as well as the potential economic benefits for the region from marijuana cultivation. Meanwhile, as Cayman authorities continue to ignore the shift away from zero tolerance elsewhere, the US attorney general has also called for lower sentences for non-violent drug crimes.
With ganja now legal for medical purposes in a growing number of States and in some for recreational use, the war on all drugs and zero tolerance policies are being gradually eroded.
The US authorities are slowly recognizing that the war on consumption and personal possession is an impossible war to fight. With States having directed significant funding away from building prisons towards evidence-based programmes and services, the focus is moving towards supervision and drug treatment and other initiatives that actually reduce recidivism and improve public safety rather than locking people up.
Caribbean leaders still have concerns about the potential repercussions that would come from legalizing or even decriminalizing marijuana, but rather than ignoring it they have opted to examine the issue in detail.The mandated commission is expected to provide clear guidance for the tough decisions that will need to be made.
“In relation to this issue we have obviously taken more than baby steps. We want the issue to be addressed in a serious, mature manner,” said chair the heads of government, Dr Ralph Gonsalves.
The Commission is expected to report to the Regular Meeting of the Conference in July 2014.
Category: Health
I would like to see young offenders given community then Jail and a clean criminalrecord so they may have a second chance and clean police records. A silly mistake made by these young persons makes them reduntant for future of a chance of findingwork or not able to go overseas to pursue their Education.
Whoever you are Michel ,I totally agree with you. I personally know of a very smart and bright Caymanian who messed up when they were young mainly because of a parental divorce. It was only for alittle ganja that now a day so many want to legalize. That young man has seven passes and cannot get a job just because of his past record when he was very young. Cant even travel because he cant get a police record. It is time that these cases are looked into as it is only helping guys like these not to go on with their lives. In Cayman once your record is scratched you are done for and we put others from foriegn in their place that we dont know anything about. We are asking our Governor and our new Politicians to look into this matter and give our young Cayman men a chance.
Unfortunately leniency on these laws will never come to pass in Cayman because at the end of the day, we're in the US' pocket.
I guess on a island where peole drink and drive everyday and where it is acceptable to hit your wife or girlfriend, acceptable to punish kids for the rest of there lives for a mistake they made when they were young , where its acceptable to discrimanate against people it would be a bad idea to decrimalize something that is more widely accepted that alcohol today
Watching with interest, could provide a new attraction at the agricultural show.
Canada is a good example to follow…
Have you ever had a ganja smoker to work for you? Well try them. They are lazy short of understanding and ignorant. It is if their brains are burnt up. Worst when they were users and is in theirmiddle age. In fact most of them look older than what they are and alot of them die from cancer. Let those that want to use it use it but for God sake do not legalize it for our children All those that are on it just let them smoke theirselves to death.
Im sure since your soooo smart and not ignorant that you know that most people in the world today consider "ganja" less dangerous than sugar, you would also know that there is no known ganja realated deaths to this date, you would also know that all of the aliments you just described are related to alcohol consumption. but then again you are not ignorant so you already know these things!
Seems to me that your brain is burnt up by looking at all the misspelling and incorrect grammar used in your post. Talk about lazy….. You couldn't even do a spell check. Check your self before you wreck your self. Food for thought.
You're illiterate, lack of education on your part. How many people do YOU know that have literally DIED from smoking Ganja????
Tobacco and Alcohol on the other hand kill thousands every year (if not more). Do your homework then come back and post an EDUCATED comment.
PEACE
Really? Your information is so off-base and outdated. Sure, there are some people who smoke marijuana and are lazy, but there are also people who don't smoke marijuana and are twice as lazy!
I have smoked essentially every day since I was about 19 and in that time I've managed to get two Bachelor's degrees from a Top 25 university and then I went on to get my Masters (with honours) from the University of Cambridge in the UK… so don't globalise, don't generalise, don't blanket accuse.
I was going to reply with an educated response on how marijuana is shown to actually help with the effects of some cancers (amongst other medical ailments), but after reading your comment a few times over, I know it will be wasted on your ignorant mind.
I will say this from a personal note – I smoke ganja everyday, multiple times a day. One of those times of the day is smoking a nice, fat joint when I wake up in the morning. After a shower, I head to work heavily medicated and ready to face my job as the Business Manager of a $15mil/year business with over 20 employees. I have been running the business for 5 years and I have smoked everyday for 4 of them. We have doubled our business since I started in this capacity and we are currently in works to double it again in the coming years. Ganja does not effect my drive, motivation or ambitions – in fact I find that, with me, it heightens them.
It is the person not the herb – I have hired and fired many of the same people that you are probably talking about, but I have promoted just as many employees who I know smoke ganja. Those lazy ganja smokers that you are refering to are just lazy. And so are you for making such broad generalizations and for spewing fooliness about the effects of marijuana when the facts are at your fingertips.
"All those that are on it just let them smoke theirselves [sic] to death." Precisly – legalize it so anyone who wants safe access to this harmless but effective medicine can have it.
Oh, you sounds like you was my Boss. So I was not wrong with my suspicion. Because of the madness you displayed I had to leave my job.
I've worked in professional services all my life and smoked most days since a teenager. I have glowing references from clients, colleagues and my bosses alike… because I get the job done, and more. I am very motivated and very reliable. I am one of the oldies you speak of, but everyone tells me I look 10 years younger than I am, and I do. I second what the person above said, its the person not the weed.
The so-called erosion of zero tolerance is a statistcial mirage clung to by potheads on the basis of a handful of daring states. The real longterm health trend is a total abolition of smoking in any form, and the pace is about to radically change on that front.
We've known smoking in any form contributes to Cardiovascular Disease since the 1950's, why would it make sense then to ignore the volumes of scientific evidence and advocate for smoking now, sixty-five years later? Medical Marijuana has some clinical merit in an oil or vaporizor form, but encouraging recreational smoking is not going to add brain cells, cure cancer, or improve anyone's cardiovascular health. We don't have a large pool of veterans suffing from PTSD in the Caribbean. But CD is the number one killer of humans male and female by a factor of ten, and societies ignore the health statistics at their peril.
When society starts being asked to pay for people's bad habits, laws change. This is going to now start applying to health choices. In the next 5 years the freedom to smoke tobacco cigarettes will likely come under attack from Obamacare. Watch and see what happens in the land of the free. CVS Pharmacies recently announced they are not going to sell them after October this year. 20 years from now, nobody's going to believe that people used to spend a significant cut of their annual household income to deliberately inhale carcinogenic smoke!
exactly we have known for years that TOBACCO smoke casues death and dieseses
You do realize of course that many advocates of legalizing ganja do not advocate consumption by inhalation but instead via other delivery methods especially when discussing its use in medicine where controlled dosages can occur….
Ever hear of herbal teas?
Ever hear of using herbs and plants as part of a diet?
How about supplements?
No one is saying smoke it…well they are but putting aside their ignorance there is a large community of medical professionals and savvy health consumers who would like to return to the good old days when this valuable plant was not banned and they know how to use it to help the body not harm it.
I'm guessing you also don't realize that before tobacco was brought forward for profit it was used by native peoples also as an healing herb.
same with the cacao leaf
All of these so called harmful plants when used in their natural forms have healing properties and other methods of delivery.
if you wish to reduce CD kindly target the fast food chains, the sugar industry, the dairy industry, the idiots who moved away from a healthy mostly plant based non-refined diet …. Oh yes and the stupidity of those who refuse to abide by portion control and the child abusers who shut their children up with unhealthy food rewards instead of engaging with them in healthy activities…
if you are a medical practitioner kindly open your mind to possibilities if not do not spout ignorance.
COME ON CAYMAN…lets get with the Programme….SAVE LIVES NOW!!!
what a grand opportunity! Talk about Industry and jobs in the growing of Medical Mary Jane. and where are our leaders? pandering to golf-course developers. ahh boy.
Well, mate, look at the comments above. These old foggies will scream and holler about the negative effects of marijuana, yet the lot of them are drunks, religious extremists, philanderers, or the the like. Always in search for something or someone other than themselves to blame for the downward spiral of our community.
I have been wandering for the last few ywars what has gone wrong with our once Little Paradise. Now I understand. I did not have a clue that there were so many weed smokers. I plan to make some tee shirts for sale and I know I would get wealthy in a short time. Their title will be "I smoke ganja". Just guess who supplies it?
Our leaders have clean hands and pure hearts. Very tough for them to engage in this topic.