Jamaican cabinet approves legalised marijuana bill

Ganja is used as a sacrament by the Rastafarian movement. Picture: Contributed

The move paves the way for a legal medical marijuana industry on the Caribbean island, the justice minister said yesterday.

Following the cabinet’s authorisation, justice minister Mark Golding said he expects to introduce the legislation in the Senate by the end of this week. Debate could start before the end of the month in the pot-steeped country where the drug, known popularly as ganja, has long been culturally entrenched but illegal.

Mr Golding said the bill would establish a “cannabis licensing authority” to deal with the various regulations needed to cultivate, sell and distribute marijuana for medical, scientific and therapeutic purposes.

“We need to position ourselves to take advantage of the significant economic opportunities offered by this emerging industry,” Mr Golding said.

It would make possession of two ounces or less a ticketable offence that would not result in a criminal record. Cultivation of five or fewer plants on any premises would be permitted.

Rastafarians who use marijuana as a sacrament could also legally use cannabis for religious purposes for the first time in Jamaica, where the spiritual movement was founded in the 1930s.

For decades, debate has raged in Jamaica over relaxing laws prohibiting ganja. But now, with a number of countries and US states relaxing their marijuana laws the Jamaican government is advancing reform plans.

Mr Golding stressed that the government will not soften its stance on transnational drug trafficking and it intends to use a portion of revenues from its new licensing authority to support a public education campaign to discourage drug smoking by youngsters and mitigate public health consequences.

The head of Jamaica’s Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Taskforce said he expected the bill to be passed soon in parliament, where prime minister Portia Simpson Miller’s governing party holds a two-to-one majority. “The development is long overdue,” task force director Delano Seiveright said.

South and Central America and the Caribbean countries have been battling the impact of drug trafficking and drug use for decades.

Cocaine and marijuana produced in the region is transported through many countries.

There have been a number of other developments in nearby central and Southern America in relation to possession of the drug.

In Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, marijuana possession in small amounts was decriminalised a few years ago, and Argentina is drafting a set of proposals to loosen restrictions on possession

In Guatemala, president Otto Perez Molina is proposing moves to push for the legalisation of marijuana and potentially other drugs

Chile and Costa Rica are also debating the introduction of medical marijuana policies

Uruguay last year became the first country in the world to approve the growth, sale and distribution of marijuana.