1. INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT FOR LAW REVIEW 1.1. At the core of the work the Commission was required to do is the issue of legal policy in relation to marijuana. Currently, in all CARICOM states, cannabis/ marijuana exists as an illegal substance in a legislative regime often described as prohibitionist, leading to criminal sanctions. Significantly, the criminalisation of cannabis/ marijuana in the Commonwealth Caribbean region was initiated without indigenous analysis or debate, but was merely an automatic, unquestioning response to international treaty formation on the subject, itself emerging un-endowed with scientific grounding and labelled an “historical accident”.2 This change in legal status instantly criminalised Caribbean peoples who had hitherto used cannabis/ marijuana without condemnation. 1.2. The determination of whether or not the status quo with respect to the legal status of marijuana deserves to remain, or be changed, necessitates a deep inquiry into the several, multi-disciplinary dimensions of the subject: the scientific, medical, legal, social, religious and economic. Notably, although marijuana for medical purposes has been very topical recently, the issue of marijuana usage in general, predates and goes beyond using marijuana for medical The Commission is of the view that purposes in CARICOM. Cannabis/ marijuana is part of the a law reform process that focusses historical, cultural and religious traditions of Caribbean only on medical marijuana would societies and is used for other purposes. Identifying an appropriate legal policy direction therefore involves balancing seriously short-change Caribbean complex variables.
peoples, given the many deeply significant considerations that need to inform legal policy.
1.3. The Commission is of the view that a law reform process that focusses only on medical marijuana would seriously short-change Caribbean peoples, given the many deeply significant considerations that need to inform legal policy. In fact, as it stands, law reform is not necessary for medical marijuana use since existing legislation already creates such avenues, although little known. The issue of law reform and in particular, whether to remove prohibition from existing laws is not only, or even mainly, about Medical Marijuana. Indeed, it is ironic and somewhat incongruous that there is an apparent eagerness to legalise marijuana for medical purposes, thereby acknowledging the benefits of the substance, while at the same time, maintaining a legal fiction that it is a dangerous drug without value, to continue to criminalise persons who use it for other purposes. 1.4. We have found that the social justice and human rights issues are paramount in this dialogue. In 2018, a person can still be imprisoned for up to 40 years for 1.16 kg of cannabis/ marijuana because of law existing on our books. This is a sobering thought and an indictment on our justice systems and very democracies. 1.5. Importantly, the Commission recognised from the onset, that even if the scientific evidence reveals that there is some “harm’’ in using marijuana, itself a line of inquiry, this would not necessarily point to criminalisation, or prohibition. Rather, the inquiry would be whether legal and social policy objectives may be better achieved by other, more proactive approaches, which are informed by pragmatic public health, social justice and developmental rationales.
The issue of a name – marijuana or cannabis.
1.6. The issue of the appropriate name for the plant substance that is the subject of this Report is itself controversial. While CARICOM chose to label the Commission using the term ‘marijuana’, several persons across the region objected to this name. They cited the racist and propagandist connotations of the term, popularised by US policy-makers wishing to blacklist Mexicans. We prefer the scientific term ‘cannabis’, but given the established name of the Commission, in this Report we will continue to use the Schwartz D (2014). Marijuana was criminalized in 1923, but why? CBC News. Available at http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/marijuana ‐was‐criminalized‐in‐1923‐but‐why‐1.2630436. 2
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