JAMAICA BLOWS LID OFF POT BAN

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- In the heart of Kingston, about a dozen men stand in
an open-air emporium stacking long buds of marijuana even though the crop
is illegal.

"High-grade, the best ... smell it," says a dreadlocked 27-year-old
Rastafarian named Toro, as he holds up a bud and beckons to a passer- by.
Sale completed, he lights a marijuana joint and smiles.

These days, he has a lot to be happy about.

A government commission recommended Thursday that marijuana be legalized
for personal use by adults - a move the government likely will endorse
despite opposition from the United States, which has spent millions to
eradicate the crop on the Caribbean island.

"(Marijuana's) reputation among the people as a panacea and a spiritually
enhancing substance is so strong that it must be regarded as culturally
entrenched," the commission report said.

The National Commission on Ganja - as marijuana is known here - also said
Jamaica should allow the use of marijuana for religious purposes.

This is important to the Rastafarian minority, who worship deceased
Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie as a prophet and use marijuana as a sacrament.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson last year appointed the commission, which
included academics and doctors. So far, he and elected officials have not
commented publicly on the report.

But Ralston Smith, an aide to Patterson, said Friday: "My gut feeling is
that the commission's recommendations will be followed."

Any change in existing drug laws would have to be approved by Parliament.
And legalization, even for personal use, could cause friction with the
United States and violate the 1988 U.N. Convention Against the Illicit
Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Jamaica signed the
accord.

In the past 20 years, the United States has worked with Jamaica to burn
marijuana fields and carry out other anti-drug efforts.

It also has provided aid to fight drug trafficking in Jamaica, the
Caribbean's largest marijuana exporter and a major transshipment point for
cocaine.

Between 1992-98, the United States provided $7.8 million to Jamaica to
eliminate marijuana production and trafficking. The most popular method has
been to chop down the plants and burn the fields.

Indian indentured servants are thought to have brought marijuana to Jamaica
in the 19th century.

Its use as a medicinal herb spread rapidly among plantation workers, with
some using ganja tea to alleviate aches and others using rum- soaked
marijuana as a remedy for coughs and fevers.

But it was not until the 1960s and 1970s, with the rise of Bob Marley and
other reggae icons, that marijuana began to gain acceptance outside poor
neighborhoods.

Marijuana's deep roots were clear in the Luke Lane market as word spread of
the commission's recommendation.

Among the patrons was Horace Clarke, 43, who also was buying school
supplies for his three children.

"At night, when the children are sleeping, sometimes I smoke a little with
my lady," Clarke said as he bought a quarter-ounce for about $2.50.

The vendors were pleased at the possibility that it might be legal to use
marijuana, even though selling the drug would remain illegal.

A dealer who gave his name only as Metro said he earns about $100 on a good
day.

"This money doesn't go out to buy guns, it goes to food that fills the
bellies of my children and puts them in school clothes and pays their
school fees," he said.

"What's criminal about that?"