Minors using illegal drugs at an earlier age
by Marie-Claire Williams
There’s concern that children in Barbados are smoking marijuana from as early as six-years old.
Tuesday morning,
Director of the Criminal Justice and Research Unit Cheryl Willoughby
did not say how widespread the problem was, but she told a stakeholders’
meeting for the charity My Child and I that minors in Barbados were now being introduced to the illegal drug at kindergarten age.
“We
spoke to Dr [Beresford] Connell, a psychiatrist at the Psychiatric
Hospital, who stated that traditionally, marijuana use began in teenage
years, as a direct result of the adolescent nature to experiment.
However, within recent times Dr Connell has seen an increasing number of
patients who indicated that they were introduced to marijuana by
friends or family members from the early age of seven,” Willoughby
reported.
She also revealed that inmates at Dodds
Prison had disclosed that they were introduced to the drug between ages
six and nine by family and friends.
“So we can no
longer think that our intervention must be at the secondary school
level. We now have to look at educating our little ones from as early as
kindergarten, because if we can teach them about safe drugs, and about
taking medication and about the dangerous drugs and so on, I believe
that at some point in time it will be less stress,” she said.
The
Director of the Criminal Justice and Research Unit also reiterated her
emphatic “no” to the question of whether marijuana should be
decriminalized here, while highlighting the findings of a 2015 survey on
the extent of marijuana use in Barbados.
“In that
study I determined that we need to keep marijuana as an illegal drug in
Barbados, based on the evidence that came out of our research when we
went into the Psychiatric Hospital, Verdun House, and all other
treatment centres. We also went into the prison and we spoke to persons
incarcerated, not only for drugs but also for serious crimes.
“And
some of the recommendations that we put out in that project came from
those inmates. And some of them begged us to keep marijuana as an
illegal drug. So that was my recommendation to the Attorney General,”
Willoughby stressed.
She further pointed out that
between 2009 and 2014, 3,412 people were charged for marijuana-related
offences, with males making up to 94 per cent of that figure. The most
prevalent age group was 20-29, followed by the 30-39 category.
Willoughby
also addressed what she said was the myth that most individuals charged
and jailed for marijuana were incarcerated for possessing “a simple
spliff”.
“Over 98 per cent of persons who are charged
for a spliff, they get community service or they are worked with by
social workers,” she explained, adding that with the introduction of a
drug treatment court here, more work was being done in the area of
rehabilitation.
“So no one is incarcerating persons who are found with a spliff,” she said.
“The
medical model is being applied to persons who are at risk, but you
would find that those persons who are actually given sentences for
marijuana, they have outstanding warrants, they’re on bail, or they were
charged for trafficking, or possession near a school or something more
serious,” Willoughby added.
Just last week, the leader of the fledgling Barbados Integrity Movement (BIM) Neil Holder issued a promise to decriminalize marijuana if his party wins the next general election, constitutionally due next year.
During an interview with Barbados TODAY,
Holder expressed concern that too many young people were being
incarcerated for having “a spliff or two”, and that both families and
Government were paying dearly as a result of the jailing of men in
particular.
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