ATTITUDES TO GANJA SHOULD BE REVIEWED

The Editor, Sir:

I read the opinion of Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett and while I respect his
opinion, feel it necessary to disagree with the severity of his
conclusions. Ganja or weed, as it is commonly called, absolutely does
have the negative effect of lethargy and seems to interfere with the
ambitions of young people who use the herb excessively. This being
said, we have to examine the big picture as there are several factors
that come to bear with the herb's ability to achieve the following:

1) Gainfully employed young people who need a paycheck do not seem to
be as affected as the unemployed and hopeless (as in lack of real
hope for gainful occupation or training).

2) The continued ludicrous criminalisation of use of a naturally
occurring plant psychologically drives youth to the side of rebellion
given existing frustration with society's inadequate response to their needs.

3) Weed, despite being punishable by law, does far less damage to
society than alcohol whose acceptance remains as a result of its
taxability and greater use by the 'higher' levels of our society.
After all, ministers and MPs don't sit around and smoke weed, they
smoke fine cigars and drink single-malt scotch.

4) The high (or 'focus') easily achieved by $50 worth of weed is only
matched by a $200+ expenditure on alcohol in most people and recovery
to function effectively is far more efficient from the former.

5) Weed will be overly attractive to the young as long as it is
identified as illegal, radical and rebellious, thus the removal of
those connotations will effectively reduce the use of ganja by the
most susceptible.

I believe the time is here for all of us to take a serious look at
the challenges faced by the country and what can and cannot be
changed in the Jamaican society.

The biggest challenge we face today is crime and in much the same
manner and tone that our police commissioner announced the possible
closing of some police substations in order to concentrate effort to
the real task at hand, I strongly suggest we stop wasting the time of
the police and the courts with the persecution of ganja smoking.

The perception that if ganja is legalised, America will 'cut us off',
needs to change. America either is already bigger than that or needs
to grow up. America is recognising that it has already lost its 'war
on drugs' and intelligent people worldwide know that the drugs we
need to worry about are prescription drugs that our needy cannot
afford and that kill us a little quicker anyway.

Ganja, weed, marijuana, cannabis or herb needs to be recognised, if
not embraced, as a part of the fabric of Jamaican life. All the
prosecution and persecution in the world will not stop or even stem its use.

This herb has fantastic curative properties but we focus on the small
detrimental effect it has on the young while denying our own failures
and that of our Government to provide hope and opportunity for the
said young people.

We are on the cusp of a new day in Jamaica and I hope that the whole
ganja situation will be favourably revisited.

I am, etc.,

STEPHEN F. SMITH

Black River, St. Elizabeth