Final Report - CARICOM Regional Commission on Marijuana 2018 Waiting to Exhale

TERMS OF REFERENCE AND METHODOLOGY The Terms of Reference for the Commission were to: (a) conduct a rigorous enquiry into the social, economic, health and legal issues surrounding marijuana use in the Caribbean and to determine whether there should be a change in the current drug classification of marijuana thereby making the drug more accessible for all types of usage (religious, recreational, medical and research); and (b) recommend, if there is to be a re-classification, the legal and administrative conditions that should apply; In the scope of its work, the Commission was also authorised and mandated to “engage in an extensive consultation process with members of the Community and other key stakeholders at the national level to elicit the population’s view about current usage and re-classification.�

Ten persons from across the region with relevant expertise in the scientific, medical, legal and social science fields, as well as representatives from the Christian and Rastafarian religious communities and of the youth, were selected as Commissioners, ensuring inclusiveness. A Chair and Deputy-Chair were appointed. The Commission convened in 2016 and in June 2016, the first national consultation was held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, due to a lack of funding, the national consultations were suspended.

In February 2017, the Commission obtained funding from the Foundation to Promote Open Society (OSF)) to support the implementation of its work. Consequently, after the initial June 2016 meeting, the national consultations resumed in June 2017.

Methodology To fulfil its mandate, the Commission employed mixed methods to gather data. Primary data were obtained from the National Consultations, comprising national public meetings and focus group discussions to obtain indepth information. National consultations were convened in Member States working in collaboration with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs. Secondary data was obtained from several sources.

The Commission made itself available to every Member State of CARICOM and accommodated all requests with respect to scheduling, so as to ensure that Caribbean peoples had the opportunity to voice their opinions on this issue of deep social significance to the region. Consequently, national consultations were conducted in nine (9) countries: St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Suriname, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Belize and the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

A national consultation was scheduled for the Commonwealth of Dominica, but unfortunately, had to be cancelled because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. The Commission takes the opportunity to offer salutations to the Government and peoples of Dominica, to thank them for their interest in the work of the Commission and wish them every success in the road to rebuilding and continued development.

A request to Grenada which was postponed due to imminent elections in that country, but did not materialise. There were no responses to requests from the CARICOM Secretariat to Saint Lucia to host a Consultation and Trinidad and Tobago indicated in response to requests that the Consultation could not be accommodated during the time period. The Commission also received a request for a Consultation from Jamaica, but given that Jamaica had already amended its laws, this was not prioritised for funding reasons.

The Consultations were structured in two parts, comprising focus group discussions of targeted stakeholders, in addition to public Town Hall meetings. The national public meetings allowed for attendees to articulate their concerns on the issue of decriminalisation of marijuana. While national surveys would have provided information general to the population, given the time and budgetary constraints for conducting national surveys, public town hall meetings allowed for open discussion and xii