DECRIMINALISATION OF GANJA

THE EDITOR, Sir:

It is very unfortunate that the moment you use the word decriminalisation
in Jamaica, some people feel that it means legalisation, but, this is not
the case in Barbados, because many Bajans did Latin in school, so they know
the difference.

My understanding of the issue, is that if a person is found with two ounces
of ganja, it would be unwise to lock up that teenager in a cell with
vicious killers. The correct thing to do is to send that person to a
counsellor.

Second, if a man is arrested for having 10 ounces of ganja, but he has four
small children and his wife was admitted into Victoria Jubilee Hospital to
have a fifth child, you do not criminalise that man, but provide an avenue
for him to return to his family urgently. Ganja can be decriminalised so
that it can be used for medicinal purposes in order to treat glaucoma and
provide relief for those who have AIDS and certain types of cancer.

Decriminalisation does not mean that we should neglect the harmful aspect
of the use of marijuana as expressed in medical research periodicals.
(Pregnant mothers and young adults' brain). The use of ganja for medicinal
purposes, and the dangerous aspects of ganja can be found on the Internet.
The Christian church has to have dialogue as to how to interpret
theologically, the use of marijuana to convey God's grace. What is the
nature of our sacramental theology?

I object to the interference of a U.S. diplomat who is trying to threaten a
sovereign country with cold war duppy language, that if Jamaica
decriminalise marijuana, the U.S. will penalise us. The U.S. plants more
ganja than Jamaica and the multinational pharmaceutical firms in the U.S.
are eagerly waiting to manufacture drugs from the ganja plant.

Thank God for Fidel Castro who has shown that you can defy America for 40
years, live under an embargo, escape assassination by the CIA, and have
three per cent economic growth. He is the politician of the 20th century
and the Cuban people must be congratulated.

Jamaicans must not allow the U.S. to resurrect 'the rolling calf mythology
of neo-colonialism' and we should tell the Pentagon, that we are not for
sale. We are a sovereign nation; leave us alone. This goes not only for
U.S. politicians from the State Department, but those visiting U.S.
evangelists who need to read more.

Jamaicans! Stand Firm! Read the following poems by Claude McKay, "If We
Must Die", "Baptism" and "Like A Strong Tree."

I am, etc.,

REVD. ERNLE GORDON