Jamaica Moves Closer Towards Legalising Marijuana

Decriminalising cannabis has received the backing of Jamaica's Prime Minister Percival Patterson, following a government commission looking at the consequences for the Caribbean island.

"We are not considering legalising in the sense of making it legal for people to grow, to sell, to export. It is for private use, and, of course, it will have to be confined to adults," said Mr Patterson (The Scotsman).

According to a report in the Scostman, however, Jamaica risks economic sanctions from America if they change their laws, due to America's ongoing commitment to "an international war against drugs".

"Our view is that decriminalisation is not in keeping with the 1988 UN
Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances, of which Jamaica is a signatory," a US official told the newspaper.

"The UN convention is our road map for international co-operation, and decriminalisation would be seen as backsliding."

Former Netherlands ambassador Jan G. Van der Tas challenged the validity of the UN Conventions last week, and called for worldwide drug liberalisation based on the pragmatic harm reduction approach practised by the Dutch.


"The Netherlands can do the world a favour by actively promoting its concept of a more liberal drugs policy - not as the only imaginable solution or universal remedy, but certainly as a workable and morally acceptable alternative to the hopeless and morally abject American 'War on Drugs'," he said.

"The real problem with drugs rests with drug prohibition and the fanatical, U.S.-inspired efforts to enforce it. It is indeed the war on drugs itself that produces - unintentionally perhaps, but inevitably - the almost limitless gains and illegal resources that can, among other things, be channelled into financing international terrorism."

Mr Van der Tas' comments appeared in a report published by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

http://www.ukcia.org/cgi-bin/denounce.pl (Denounce the UN Single Convention on Narcotics)

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com (Jamaica's top newspaper)
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