RAMCHAND'S POT LUCK

PROF Kenneth Ramchand must have felt confident enough to bet that his
submission, made during last week's debate on the Dangerous Drugs Bill,
would evoke informed and meaningful discussion.

Instead, he discovered that Parliament is not necessarily a place in
which you gamble on enlightenment. Consequently, making brave
suggestions about decriminalising marijuana use is rendered risky.

Judging from remarks made by fellow Senators, Prof Ramchand may have
done little more than fuel speculation that his most recent encounter
with the herb was not while studying in Jamaica, but more likely in the
Chamber's tea-room, just prior to Tuesday's sitting.

By weekend, the once-respected professor had suffered severe image-
modification on radio talk shows. He was dubbed "Senator Spliff" by one
daily newspaper and quartered in the editorial of another; almost as if
the man had irrationally argued for every convicted rapist and axe-
murderer to receive an unconditional pardon or national award.

But as a man of language, indeed public orator of the University of the
West Indies, the professor should best understand the old folk saying:
"You can't give corbeaux sponge cake", or the equally applicable
"Gopaul luck is not Seepaul luck."

So even as Senators in the rest of the civilised world actively debate
the decriminalisation of marijuana in certain applications, their
counterparts here, revelling in cultural complacency, are laughing out
loud and shooting down in flames the only courageous attempt to date to
launch serious discussion on the issue.

Mark you, just last April, the Hawaiian Senate approved a Bill
allowing people with certain debilitating illnesses (including Aids and
cancer) to legally smoke marijuana to alleviate pain. Seven other
American states already allow medicinal use of the herb. Hawaii,
however, became the first to apply the concept through legislation
instead of voter referendum.

Legislatures in 37 US states have passed bills in support of medicinal
use of "grass". However, the Federal government remains opposed to such
concessions and warns physicians that they may lose federally-
sanctioned privileges for writing prescriptions for controlled
substances, be barred from participation in Medicare and Medicaid
programmes and face criminal prosecution for prescribing marijuana.

The British Government is yet to agree, but the report of a Royal
Commission, under the chairmanship of Lady Runciman of Doxford,
recently found the current penalties for marijuana possession far too
harsh. Britain's Police Federation has also said that the current law
concerning marijuana was doing more harm than the drug itself and
called for a reclassification of such offences, suggesting that
possession of small quantities be treated like traffic violations.
Unlike Prof Ramchand's utterances here, those suggestions received wide
public support, with the majority of newspapers, including those that
traditionally adopt conservative positions, calling for the British
Government to change the law.

The Netherlands, Germany and Italy do not prohibit the personal
consumption of marijuana, while Spain applies administrative sanctions
where the herb is being smoked in a public place. On April 6, the South
China Morning Post published excerpts from a police report, which
recommended the scrapping of jail terms for possession of soft drugs.

The Canadian Government licenses persons permitted to smoke marijuana
for medicinal relief. And when Health Canada announced a plan earlier
this year, to award a contract to a supplier of marijuana for research
purposes, tenders were received from more than 165 organisations around
the world, including the McGill and Guelph Universities.

But back in our darkened neck of the woods, these matters are still
considered either humorous, or simply not worth the political risk. The
gateway-drug theory surfaces, suggesting that most people who try
marijuana for whatever purpose, will graduate to harder drugs. Somehow,
the same argument is conveniently invalid for those who drink liquor,
the most widely used drug in the world.

In a broader sense, we are yelling vainly into the wind. Police and
politicians frequently trumpet "victories" in the battle against drugs,
earning front page space and public congratulation, although it has
become at least noticeable that the actual war is never quite won. What
is worse, is that innocent bystanders often get caught in the
crossfire, when the gangsters who currently control drug production and
distribution cross each other's turf and the real wars begin. All the
current system of supply, demand and law enforcement really does
therefore, is push the price and murder rate up. Add the fact that the
lawless drug barons pay no taxes, then distract disproportionate
numbers of police, in the attempt to contain their activities. In the
mix, far too many of the policemen are corrupted, inducing even greater
depletion of the already dwindling force of dependable officers.

It seems to me that, given the amount of information available on both
sides of the marijuana argument, there is at least a basis for debate,
among the people who have the courage to engage it.

Saying no to even a discussion on the subject is not what we deserve
from our Senate.