that the increase in the prison population is mainly related to the war on drug policy and a lack of efforts in the area of Demand Reduction Experience.150 As Singh reports: “Perverse outcomes of the war against drugs on the criminal justice system include: legislation which has resulted in overcrowded prisons and cluttered courts; harsher sentencing laws with longer prison terms for people who are for the most part drug users, not traffickers; large-scale arrests of those found in possession of small quantities of drugs; and the inappropriate incarceration of drug users who need treatment, not detention.”151 6.13. The inefficiency of the current regime is exacerbated by the very high costs associated with prohibition and the lack of any revenue potential for the state in return. Such resources are better placed elsewhere. This is a factor also highlighted in the Commission’s Economics Study. Such costs have been measured in other countries. In Canada, “the enforcement of cannabis laws is very costly: for 2002, the annual cost of enforcing cannabis possession laws (including police, courts, and corrections) in Canada was estimated at $1.2 billion.”152 Notably, in Canada and in the US, sentences are lower than in CARICOM, which means that our enforcement costs are higher. In Canada, the maximum sentence for first‐time offenders is a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. 6.14. Law enforcement experts emphasise, and the Commission concurs, that judicial and lawenforcement institutions in the region stand to benefit from a reform of the law’s current stance of illegality on marijuana cultivation, sale and possession. The penal system, which is in dire need of restructuring and relief, can be improved by removing cannabis/ marijuana from the criminal legal system. Law enforcement personnel point to the poor prison conditions and local magistrate courts which are “’bursting at their seams’’ from inmate overcrowding, and case overloads for marijuana possession. The situation is viewed as even more untenable by the fact that often arrests are for miniscule amounts of possession and consumption levels. For example, in Saint Lucia 52% of the prison population was incarcerated for cannabis related offences.153 The Commission’s Economics Study notes this negative cost.
Lessons from Jamaica and Other Countries from a Law Enforcement Perspective
6.15. The 2015 initiative of Jamaica toward decriminalisation is instructive. Since the amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act in Jamaica in 2015, which decriminalised possession of ganja of two ounces or less, the Police have also emphasised educational activities along with the decriminalisation initiative. Notably, Jamaica has consequently experienced a considerable drop in youth crime and juvenile delinquencies. Law-enforcement experts and those who work with juvenile delinquents point out that placing youth in the criminal system tended to promote further criminality rather than dissuade it, creating hardened criminals and lasting negative social consequences, inevitably creating greater harm to the societies and industries than use itself. 6.16. The Jamaica experience mirrors that of other jurisdictions. For example, In Portugal, possession and use of all drugs have been decriminalized since 2001. The Portuguese model focuses on diversion: drug use is formally prohibited but authorities refer users with substance use problems to treatment. Civil penalties such as fines may also be imposed. Since the implementation of this system, Portugal has seen declines in substance misuse and in drug‐related harm, a reduced burden on the criminal justice system, and a reduction in the use of illicit drugs by adolescents.154 Similar experiences have been documented from The Netherlands system, which decriminalised cannabis early on. Indeed, there is evidence that the model separated cannabis from the “harder” drug markets.155 Decriminalisation has not led to misuse, dependence, and harm. 6.17. Similarly, recent studies have found that the legalization of the cannabis market across the US has resulted in a reduction in crime156. More specifically, it was emphasized that changes in policy could <http://www.odccp.org/report_2000-09-21_1.html> Wendy Singh, ‘Drugs and the Prison System – Impact of Legislative Changes on the Prison Crises in the Commonwealth Caribbean region’, in A. Klein, M. Day, A. Harriott (eds) Caribbean Drugs, Zed Books Ltd., 18 Jul 2013, Chapter 4. 152 Rehm et al., 2006 153 Tomris Atabay, The Prison System and Alternatives to Imprisonment in Selected Countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, UNODC, 8 November 2010. 154 Hughes CE, Stevens A (2010). What can we learn from the Portuguese decriminalization of illicit drugs? British Journal of Criminology 50: 999‐1022. 155 Room et al, 2010. 156 Dragone et al (2017) 150 151
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