shrink the size of the cannabis black market, and may even address some social problems such as reducing the negative consequences of criminal labelling for possession of small amounts of marijuana 157, decreasing youth illegal activity rates and diminishing the power of drug dealers.158 6.18. By any account, this is a wasteful system. Some might say a crisis. It is one that CARICOM and its leaders are aware of and had already acknowledged needs a different approach in their 2002 resolution.
Legitimacy of the Law Leading to Inability to Effectively Enforce it.
6.19. The underlying difficulty of enforcing the law is directly related to its lack of credibility and acceptance, as discussed above. Administering a law which lacks credibility because many believe it to be an unwarranted and unjust law in contradiction to the wide social acceptance of cannabis brings the law into disrepute and undermines the legitimacy of the legal system as a whole. It is absolutely clear that prohibition has not resulted in prevention, as intended, but in the criminalisation of Caribbean peoples, at huge costs to themselves and to our societies. The Commission echoes the conclusions of the Jamaica Report of the Ganja Commission 2001, which stated that “it was of the view that whatever health hazards the substance poses to the individual … these do not warrant the criminalisation of thousands . . .” 159
From a law enforcement perspective, there is very little correlation between marijuana users and violent crimes, taking into consideration the effects of the drug
Criminality not from Use but from Protecting Turf
6.20. The Commission felt it important to interrogate the perception, held by some, that marijuana impairs the judgement of users, who consequently exhibit a higher propensity for involvement in crime than non-users.160 Some research findings have identified associations between cannabis use and violence.161 Therefore, detractors of the liberalization policy argue that it would produce escalations in crime. However, law enforcement personnel sought to debunk first-hand, the myth that marijuana causes persons to be violent and engage in criminal behaviour. They reported that typically, users of the drug for reactional purposes are not involved in violent crime. In fact, the typical usage was to relieve stress, calming things down, rather than exacerbating aggression. Users told us so themselves at the Consultations. The medical and scientific data on the properties and impact of cannabis/ marijuana, discussed infra, that marijuana has desensitising properties, is therefore borne out by the observations made by law enforcement personnel as to the reasons people give for usage. They informed that cannabis/ marijuana is typically used for stress and medicinal purposes, including as a tea. For example, the Grenada police, when asked about the correlation between violent crime and marijuana use as observed through the arrest profile rates for marijuana in the questionnaire, said: “From a law enforcement perspective, there is very little correlation between marijuana users and violent crimes, taking into consideration the effects of the drug.”162 6.21. Studies have also demonstrated that the increase in crimes in the region is “not the prevalence of a drug-using lifestyle”, but rather to the illegal, or illicit drug trade itself. Moreover, since cannabis is readily available, “cannabis use [itself] therefore hardly ever drives one to commit other crimes in order to support the habit.163 This contrasts with the pattern for other drugs such as cocaine, which is addictive. Cotter et al (2015) cited in Hajizadeh (2016) Hajizadeh (2016) 159 A Report of the National Commission on Ganja to Rt. Hon. P.J. Patterson, Q.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Jamaica’ (Chaired by Prof Barry Chevannes) (7 August 2001) accessed at https://www.cannabis-med.org/science/Jamaica.htm. A Sergeant of Police opined that ganja smoking did not cause crime but that its prohibition drove cultivation and trafficking underground. 160 Cheon et al 2017 161 Norström and Rossow (2014) 162 CARICOM Law Enforcement Questionnaire – Grenada. 163 A. Harriott and M. Jones – ‘Drug Courts in the Caribbean, Means to an End or End in Itself, in A. Klein, M. Day, A. Harriott (eds) Caribbean Drugs, Zed Books Ltd., 18 Jul 2013 Chapter 3. The authors were speaking in the Jamaica context, but the statements are equally relevant to other CARICOM countries. 157 158
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