The
Barbados Government is still weighing the pros and cons of the
legalization of marijuana for medical uses, Attorney General Adriel
Brathwaite has revealed.
Brathwaite told a forum on
crime and its effects on community-based tourism hosted by the St Philip
Parish Independence Committee at the Princess Margaret Secondary School
last evening that while the issue has been heating up regionally and
internationally research shows that there is not a strong lobby for the
substance to be legalized here.
Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite
“Believe
it or not, based on a study that we had conducted recently even though
the information suggest that there is a wider tolerance to use of
marijuana it was about 51/49 per cent of the persons canvassed; in other
words it isn’t this large lobby for us to immediately go the root of
Jamaica and what St Vincent has been signalling,” the Minister of Home
Affairs said.
He revealed that while advocates have
been pushing for the legalization of the substance they have not done
the analysis in terms of the other side of the message.
“Which
is whether or not they are encouraging the wider use of marijuana;
whether it has any healthcare effects on the community, particularly on
young people etcetera; and that’s the analysis that we are still doing.
“We
have to do the analysis in terms of whether or not the smoking of
marijuana on a frequent basis has any negative healthcare consequences
to our young people. I don’t want to enter debate on this issue. We are
not going to agree. I as a policymaker I owe it in terms of any policy I
could come up with not just to a section of the community but to
Barbados as a whole.”
He also made reference to a an article published in Barbados TODAY about the existence of a sophisticated hydroponics laboratory in a Christ Church community producing high grade marijuana.
Prominent
criminal lawyer Arthur Holder made the revelation last month at a
meeting of the St Michael Central constituency branch of the opposition
Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
However, Brathwaite said
there was no truth to that claim, nor was there any truth that police
were targeting the “little fella when it comes to marijuana.”
“I
saw in the media recently an attorney-at-law suggesting that the police
force are focusing on the little fella when it comes to marijuana but
not focusing on persons that is growing it .
. . etcetera, etcetera.
That is also untrue. In fact there is only one
case I think last year when two persons where arrested somewhere in
Christ Church so it is really untrue and uncharitable to suggest that
the police are only after the little fella and not those wherever they
are ,” he said. (FW)
No comments:
Post a Comment