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Newsbrief:
Glacial
Movement
on
Ganja
Decrim
in
Jamaica
10/24/03
The Jamaican parliament took
one more step in its sluggish movement toward a vote on marijuana (ganja)
decriminalization last week. A new parliamentary Joint Select Committee
on ganja met October 15 to finally consider the recommendations made by
the National Ganja Commission in July 2001. Among those recommendations
was the decriminalization of the use and possession of small amounts of
ganja, as well as its use for religious purposes (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/200/ganjacommission.shtml).
The meeting of the Joint
Select Committee is only one step in the process that will, supporters
hope, bring the issue to a vote this year. The committee will meet
with the members of the national Ganja Commission in early November, and
then should require only a few more meetings before making its own recommendations
to parliament, committee member Delroy Chuck told the Jamaica Gleaner.
Chuck pressed his colleagues
for quick action. "We have been lagging with this since 1972... I
don't want us to be sitting on this next year; let us finish it this year,"
he said. "Let there be as minimum deliberations as possible so that
the parliament can get it and let the parliament by whatever means make
a decision," he added.
The National Commission on
Ganja met over a nine-month period beginning in November 2000 and interviewed
more than 350 people including health, legal, and other professionals and
influential social leaders. The commission reported that the health
consequences of marijuana did not merit making criminals out of "thousands
of Jamaicans for using it in ways and with beliefs that are deeply rooted
in the culture of the people."
While the ruling Jamaican
Labor Party had vowed to move quickly on the commission's findings, internal
divisions within the party have held it hostage. Some members fear
decriminalizing ganja could bring down the wrath of the United States.
But now, if the committee moves forward, the question could soon be before
parliament.
-- END --
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Issue #308, 10/24/03
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