PANEL URGES LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA IN JAMAICA

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Along Luke Lane, a narrow, cluttered side street
nestled in one of West Kingston's busy markets, the smell from glistening
heaps of red snapper quickly gives way to another more pungent aroma. On
barrels, footstools and tables lie piles of thick, bushy buds of marijuana,
eagerly trumpeted by vendors who puff away all day.

"People have nothing, so they plant ganja," said one young man, who
declined to give his name but whose family grows marijuana in the
countryside and sells it here for as little as $2 for a stem with a few
thick buds. "If the police come by and mash it up, they will plant again
the next day. And if the police come and take the herb here, we'll be out
selling again the next day."

For all that it is widely used in public here, marijuana is also illegal,
with possession — once punished with a mandatory sentence of 18 months at
hard labor — still subject to a stiff fine.

Now, apparently in an effort to reconcile the law with reality, a
government commission has recommended that Jamaica decriminalize marijuana
for personal use while continuing bans on cultivation and trafficking.

"The current law is unenforceable because ganja cannot be suppressed
because it is too entrenched," said Barry Chevannes, the dean of social
sciences at the University of the West Indies, who headed the commission.

American officials, local clergy and the police have objected, but Prime
Minister P. J. Patterson has said he finds some of the commission's
recommendations "persuasive." International groups for drug law reform said
the proposal reflected a growing trend in Europe and Canada toward easing
drug laws.

United States diplomats and law enforcement officials have warned that
decriminalization might violate international antidrug treaties and could
result in Jamaica's being denied American foreign aid if it was deemed
uncooperative in the war on drugs.

Fear of losing certification, and American aid, has worried local officials
and the law enforcement authorities who oppose decriminalization.

Mr. Chevannes noted that the panel supported increasing public education
efforts to discourage smoking among youths, did not recommend public
smoking, and supported stiffer criminal penalties for large-scale
cultivation and trafficking.

He said penalizing the widely accepted use of marijuana — some 6,000 people
a year are charged with marijuana offenses — helped to bring the law itself
into disrepute in Jamaica. Increased crime and warring drug gangs have left
the public dazed by violence and murder, and distrustful of a police force
that Jamaicans say regularly resorts to deadly force.

But at least a fifth of the population of some 2.7 million smoke it for
relaxation, religion or relief from illness, the report says. Rastafarians
consider it a sacrament, and have long resisted any attempt to ban the
herb. A potent medicinal infusion is made by stuffing buds into a bottle of
white rum and burying it for nine days. Mothers brew ganja tea to give a
teaspoonful to newborns to ward off illness and evil spirits.

"People believe it is a panacea that can cure many things," Mr. Chevannes
said. "With beliefs like that, it becomes virtually impossible to suppress."

Other Jamaicans believe that there are more pressing problems — urban
violence and trafficking in cocaine from Colombia, for instance.

"We have other issues that are much more critical to be spending time on
than that," said Wendell Smith, the managing director of a computer
company. "Anyway, it seems to be legal now. At the beach or concerts, the
smell is most noticeable."

Previous attempts to decriminalize marijuana have stalled, partly out of
fear of backlash.

The Rev. Devon Brown, a Pentecostal minister, is one opponent. His brother
was a promising student in a good college, "but back in the 70's he became
involved with the Rastas and began smoking ganja," he said. "Thirty years
later, he still hasn't recovered from that."

"It is not a positive part of our culture," Mr. Brown said. "It brings our
values down."

The commission's report has yet to be acted on by Parliament, and the prime
minister, who faces elections by the end of next year, may decide to delay
any move for fear of political backlash. Some leaders of his People's
National Party said they would favor a national referendum, rather than a
parliamentary vote, on the issue.

"A political party must take a stand," said Paul Burke, the party chairman
for Kingston and a longtime advocate of marijuana legalization. The report,
he said, "just sidesteps the issue."