Jamaican ganja lobby welcomes 'major boost' in the USA

The Jamaica based Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Taskforce (CCMRT) on Wednesday declared that the country's push for the cannabis liberalisation "got a major boost" after voters in the American States of Oregon, Alaska and America’s capital city, Washington DC, voted on Tuesday to legalise the use of the plant.

 

The Oregon and Alaska measures would legalize recreational ganja use and develop a network of retail ganja shops similar to those operating in Washington State and Colorado, both of which voted to legalise in 2012.

 

These developments also follow recent statements by William Brownfield, the American Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, acknowledging that the UN Drug Control Conventions, the backbone of international drug laws, should be reinterpreted to allow more policy flexibility.

The Bureau in the past had routinely cracked down on any country that dared to engage in drug policy reform.

 

Mr. Brownfield is quoted as saying, "The first of them was drafted and enacted in 1961… things have changed since 1961."

He specified that the treaties should "tolerate different national drug policies, to accept the fact that some countries will have very strict drug approaches; other countries will legalize entire categories of drugs."

 

The CCMRT, "while acknowledging the Jamaican government’s current positive positioning on ganja law reform," is urging it to "move more decisively at fundamental reform so as to ensure that Jamaica is not left behind."

 

P.J Patterson, a former Prime Minister of Jamaica, recently chided the current government  for what he characterised as bureaucratic hurdles, that remain in the way of establishing medical ganja and hemp products.

Patterson, who was speaking last Wednesday at the launch of  eight new medicinal products made from marijuana, said he was annoyed at efforts to block the development of the industry.    

  

CCMRT comprises several institutions and members of civil society. Professor Archibald McDonald, Principal of the University of the West Indies, Mona is its Chairman and Phillip Paulwell, the Minister who has portfolio responsibility for Science, its Patron.