NARCOTICS-TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Lawmaker Calls for Debate on Legalising Pot

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Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Sep 8 2000 (IPS) - As a young university student in Jamaica during the 1970s Ken Ramchand used to smoke marijuana. Now as a legislator in Trinidad and Tobago he wants his country’s Parliament to seriously consider debatin g the legalisation of the drug for medicinal purposes.

“I believe the decriminalisation of marijuana is an urgent subject that calls for rational discussion by responsible citizens in our society and I feel it is my duty to encourage such discussion,” he said.

Last month Ramchand raised the issue in the Senate, describing his use of the substance as a “relaxant at the end of a day’s work, illustrating its use for health purposes” and speaking light-heartedly of its use as “a mild flavouring in cookies and soups and other foods.”

“I was at the time supporting the argument that marijuana was not addictive, that it was not harmful to health, and that it had medicinal properties. The incidents to which I referred took place in private in Jamaica 25 years ago. I have not touched marijuana in any form since I left Jamaica in 1975,” he added.

“There has been the suggestion that for someone in my position just to say that they used marijuana 25 years ago sends a wrong signal to young people. I do not believe young people are so stupid or that a fair transmission of my speech could (lead) anyone to smoke marijuana or to think I condone or advocate its use freely in society,” Ramchand said.

Ramchand says he is not advocating the legalisation of marijuana, since it would mean that the drug would become “available and uncontrolled as alcohol and tobacco.”

But he believes the matter should be brought before the country’s Parliament allowing Parliamentarians “the freedom to do their own thinking and research and give their own opinion on the subject”.

“Decriminalisation of marijuana for medicinal purposes may lead to legislation some time in the future and this is one of the reasons why certain hard moralists and certain economic interests resist even decriminalisation,” he said pointing to the ongoing debate on the matter in countries like the United States.

Federal agencies in the United States tend to be resistant towards the medicinal use of marijuana, but Frances Young, the chief administrative law judge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration ruled marijuana has legitimate medicinal applications and should be available to doctors.

A 1998 World Health Organisation (WHO) report found that “cannabis (marijuana) is safer than alcohol or tobacco” leading to less harm to public health than cigarettes or drink.

Another report, published in the journal of Psychoactive Drugs, in 1998 noted that “marijuana and its metabolites hold tremendous promise for the development of novel-acting agents to address a number of chronic diseases”, although calling for more detailed scientific studies.

But Ramchand’s suggestion has come at a time when Trinidad and Tobago has tightened its drug legislation laws, providing the courts with greater powers of confiscation, stiffening jail terms and shifting the onus of proof of guilt from the state to the accused.

It nonetheless has opened a debate here on the issue, although the medical fraternity has so far kept silent.

Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj has already dismissed the notion of the government bringing the matter before Parliament for debate. “The present law is the possession of marijuana is a criminal offence and people are entitled to express their views, but the government has no intention of reforming those laws,” Maharaj said.

“We have nothing before us to show that it should not be a criminal offence,” he added.

Maharaj underscored the seriousness of the drug situation in Trinidad and Tobago here on Monday, when he addressed a Caribbean Action Task Force examining drugs and money laundering in the region.

According to Maharaj, on a monthly basis 100 million US dollars’ worth of illegal drugs pass through this country.

But Ramchand said he intends to continue “to campaign for the establishment of a national committee of doctors, scientists, and concerned people to examine the existing research” on marijuana.

Peter Hanoomansingh, a researcher at the University of the West Indies (UWI) says that since 1885, the authorities have been seeking to address the use of marijuana, with farmers during the period being allowed to grow the plant at a license fee of 100 pounds.

Today, legislators here have made the drug part of a series of tough legislation, which states in part that “a person found in possession of more than one kilogram of cannabis (marijuana) is deemed to have the drug for the purpose of trafficking, unless the contrary is proved”.

Hanoomansingh contends that his research on marijuana shows the ill effects to be greatly exaggerated, although he acknowledged it can damage the lungs.

Newspaper columnist and attorney BC Pires advocating support for the decriminalisation of the drug said that future generations would be “staggered” to know that cancer-causing tobacco companies were allowed to sponsor important sports events while medicinal marijuana sent its user to jail.

He suggests that “market forces” will push the legislators to examine and legalise the drug.

But not all are convinced. One newspaper reader wrote that the persons who are calling for the decriminalisation of marijuana “should visit some of these rehab centres and take a good look at what marijuana have done to society”.

“Legalise marijuana today and then what? Cocaine tomorrow?” the reader asked.

J. Marshall, who says he works with recovering addicts, told readers “it’ s not an easy sight to see how drugs mess you up”.

Last year, police figures show that an estimated 15 million marijuana plants and a further 10 million seedlings worth an estimated 500 million US dollars were destroyed by the authorities.