‘Defend Your Rights’ – says Carl Olsen

“Our main problem is that we don’t defend the rights we already have. We keep asking for more rights.”

A conversation with CARL OLSEN, former member of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, now an internationally known advocate for marijuana law reform, and an unstoppable force for legalization in his home State of Iowa. He says it’s all because of the Coptics, that band of Black and White outlaws who fought the Ganja Wars of the 1970s in Jamaica and the USA.

Q: What did you gain from being a member of the Coptics?

CO: On Monday, I’m meeting with state officials to discuss marijuana and its legalization on sacramental grounds, and I feel comfortable doing that because of my association with the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church. I’m aware that the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church was an economic force in Jamaica, but that is not what I thought about when I became a member of the group. To me, it was all about marijuana and fellowship with others who felt the same way. I was a drug abuser when I met the brothers and sisters of the Church and it because obvious to me that chemical poisons and plants are not the same thing. If there is a plant that can get you high, then why take the poison?

As I learned more about the Church, it also because apparent that they made a lot of health choices about lifestyle. Probably the biggest benefit for me was that I lost my fear of being in large groups. All of that influences and shapes who I am today.

That whole Coptic thing is hard to explain. You had to be there when it was going on to really get it, and even then it wasn’t easy to understand. You could just feel the power in the congregation and that isn’t happening any more. It came and went. I was only in Jamaica for a brief period. The ganja made the whole experience intense and I haven’t used ganja since 1990.

Q: Do you keep up with developments in Jamaica’s ganja legalization movement? How do you see the revision of our Dangerous Drugs Act to allow some growing for medical use? We are still restricted by the international treaties. Does Jamaica have to wait for the US to change the treaties?

CO: I see what is going on in Jamaica, but my take on this is that I am back where I started because there was a message I needed to take back home from the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church. Things won’t be right in Jamaica until we get this right in the United States. The United States wrote these international treaties and plays a big role in them. Jamaica can’t be the outlaws and gangsters on the international stage, as glamorous as that might appear to some. Marijuana has to be normalized globally and accepted by all.

The U.S. is the big cheese in all of this. We wrote the international treaties and adopted them in 1967. But Jamaica is a sovereign nation with its own Constitution. The international treaties recognize the Constitution of the party signing onto the treaty. So, anything Jamaica does that is constitutional in Jamaica is already allowed by the treaties.

For example, the 1961 Single Convention which covers cannabis says in Article 35 Action against the Illicit Traffic: “Having due regard to their Constitutional, legal and administrative systems, …” All those sections say they are “Subject to its Constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system…”

Q: So, if Jamaica wants full legalization like Colorado, the best thing Jamaica should do is cite these Constitutional protections in the international treaties in national legislation, so that it’s not even a question.

CO: Absolutely. When the U.N. Narcotics Control Board accused Uruguay of being out of compliance with the treaties, Uruguay never responded back by defending its actions under the treaties. At least, I didn’t see it, if they did.

The problem is when the U.N. Narcotics Control Board accuses a county of being out of compliance with the treaties, and that nation does not cite the sections of the treaty that protect that nation’s Constitutional actions. If countries don’t defend their rights, it hurts all of us. So, the best thing Jamaica should do is cite these Constitutional protections in the international treaties in national legislation so that it’s not even a question.

Q: So anything Jamaica does is legal, as long as it is Constitutional.

CO: Yes, it’s called “DUE PROCESS”. Our constitution gives us the right to establish a legislative branch and empowers them to make laws. I’m sure it’s the same in every country and, that makes it Constitutional Due Process. Our main problem is that we don’t defend the ri ghts we already have. We keep asking for more rights.

We re-wrote our federal law in 1970 and Iowa enacted its version in 1971. It’s all connected. All three levels have the scheduling. The scheduling was meant to be flexible so the laws they implement would not have to be re-written constantly. The schedules are not being updated as required by law. We don’t need any new laws. We just need the schedules to be kept up to date. That is why I got the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to rule unanimously that the schedules are out of date here in 2010. Our Iowa Senate voted to reclassify 44-0-6 on April 15, 2015.

Q: So you are optimistic?

CO: There is a lot of research going on here and that will continue. Congress legalized the production of hemp earlier this year, so attitudes are shifting. I got requests from two university professors to include my work in the course curriculum this week, one from a sociology professor at the University of Iowa, and the other from a professor of pharmacy at the university where I work. There is also the fact that the entire world is starting to embrace this issue and it’s not as radical as it once was. I feel blessed to be in the center of the discussion.

(c) Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah

 

RASTA in the New Ganja Industry

I am concerned about the total silence that has greeted the many questions RASTAs are asking about the medical ganja business that is supposed to make Jamaica rich. RASTA are asking because it was RASTA who made ganja famous, and thereby, Jamaican ganja It was RASTA who suffered death, brutality, social and economic prejudice and hatred, for its love, praise and use of ganja, declaring it RASTA holy Sacrament. The law has been passed, but here are some questions still not answered.

LAND FOR FARMERS       How will the many RASTA farmers, who have been planting ganja on remote Crown lands for which they have no title, apply to the Cannabis Registration Council to be permitted to continue farming on those same lands in a legal way? What negotiations are underway between Government and these farmers to enable them to own or lease these and other lands?. They are, after all, the backbone of the industry, despite having gained their experience during the years when such farming was illegal. Without legal access to land, will these farmers have to be forced to sell their labour (slavery again?) and farming expertise to the owners of large ganja plantations in order to earn a living in the ganja business?

One promise made in the lead-up to the revision of the Dangerous Drugs Act was that traditional small ganja farmers would be given the first opportunity to set up business, before the Big Men would be allowed. In other words, RASTA was promised that the super-rich Jamaicans at the top of the social ladder with access to the lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, professional consultants and political connections to go into large scale production, would have to wait until Ras Natty and his fellow farmers had started earning income from new, registered medical ganja businesses of some kind or other.

BIG BUSINESS        With reports of several urgent applications to set up extensive, expensive ganja businesses from the wealthiest Jamaican families with inheritances from banking, food distribution, tourism and music, how long will they have to wait on RASTA and small farmers to get their businesses operating, so they can begin to spend their money in this new, exciting and prosperous way?

Westmoreland RASTA IyahV, who is reported to have recently signed a 9 year, multi-million-Dollar contract with American multi-million-Dollar HIGHTIMES Magazine to host their Cannabis Cup in Jamaica, raised an ironic laugh when he stated recently: “The Government needs to guarantee that we the people will benefit from the industry because there is the risk of it being taken over by rich people and foreign interests.”

PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN       Meantime, who is helping the ganja farmers set up themselves? Which banks are offering loans to farmers, whose only collateral they can offer will be their labour in the business contracts they have signed to grow and/or process ganja? Who is in charge of the business education of these farmers? There is a multi-million Dollar contract for the Ministry of Health to promote the alleged negatives of ganja and we are promised by the Minister who could not warn us for 2 years of the coming Chick-V epidemic, that he will be focusing on teaching students not to use ganja. One would have thought he would use the money to educate the young people to see opportunities in the ganja business, instead of looking for jobs the education system is training them for that don’t exist.

Burke & Sievwright

Says the JLPs Delano Seivwright, co-leader with the PNP’s Paul Burke of the Ganja Legalization movement: “I find it interesting that the biggest chunk of public education coming from the Government is focused on highlighting that ganja is still illegal”

At the same time, there is no project to promote the benefits of the industry or help the farmers know how they can become involved and find funding. The Westmoreland ganja farmers’ organization is seeking crowd-funding of US$1.5 million to set up its organization’s offices and operations, but not to produce a single ganja plant. If each Parish organization is seeking the same amount to develop itself, one has to wonder where money will be found to develop, secure, tend and reap the farms necessary to produce the plants and income needed.

Sister Maxine Stowe

As Sister Maxine Stowe of the RASTAFARI Millenium Council states: “Rastafari Reggae is the global advertiser of Ganja, so how is this advertising messaging going to be controlled from the Jamaica regulatory perspective. It has to be done by the Rastafari Millennium Council that has the rights and intellectual rigor to stand up legally and morally to and for the culture against the commercial interests of Marley Natural and Cannabis Cup deep seated pockets that have been creating massive destabilization in the Rastafari Community!!!”

TAXATION       Government has identified four potential stages to tax the medicinal ganja industry in a bid to benefit from seed to sale, according to a draft document entitled the ‘Regulatory Footprint on Medical Ganja’. Minister of Business, Anthony Hylton explains that Government needs to identify all possible avenues to tax the industry for the benefit of the country and the Minister hints that he is seeking further ways to tax it. There are already howls of protest at this proposal to tax the ganja industry four times.

But after all, the only reason for relaxing the penalties for growing ganja was for the government to make as much money as possible and the only way they can to that is through taxes. Despite the favoured regard (on paper) for the RASTA Nation to grow and use ganja, the Government is not playing Santa Claus in legalizing ways to make money from ganja. People in Government (the same people despite changes of government of the past decades) have finally realized that what RASTA was saying all along about ganja being ‘the healing of the nation’ was a true description of the money it could make to heal all Jamaica’s economic ills. Money, money, money is all everyone is seeing. But no one is saying how the revenues from ganja will be spent. Free medical care for all Jamaicans? Free tertiary education? Or just paying off the 53-year debt burden?

WHAT ABOUT RASTA?         So once again we ask: What about the RASTAs? What’s happening to those people who have been calling for legalization for 80 years of existence? Everyone seems to have a ganja product displaying RASTA colours, icons, names,but so few RASTAs can be seen in close proximity. Members of the vast Marley family use beauty queens wearing Bob Marley T-shirts to advertise products which, like their Marley Coffee, are not made in Jamaica.

In ways like this RASTA culture is being sold globally and the ganja industry provides yet another opportunity for people with money to slap a Red, Gold and Green label on a product and call it ‘authentic Jamaican RASTA’. Who can stop them? The Millenium Council has been trying for 8 years to have RASTA icons, colours and marks of identity declared Intellectual Property Rights of the RASTAFARI Nation, with no success as yet.

RASTA GANJA FESTIVAL                  The RASTA community’s proposal for staging of a national Ganja Festival where Jamaican ganja farmers and producers of medical marjuana products can display the indigenous strains and products of Jamaica to the world, has been overshadowed by the announcement that multi-million-Dollar US magazine HIGH TIMES will hold its first Jamaica Cannabis Cup in Negril in November. Leaders of America’s recreational ganja community and long-standing advocates for legalizing the use of ganja, HIGH TIMES is supported by American and European growers and sellers of marijuana strains, plants, grow equipment, smoking implements, clothing and accessories, who will all be bringing their products to Jamaica if the event is given the go-ahead by the government’s Business, Tourism and Security ministries.

US PROFESSOR LEADS NEGRIL GANJA DEVELOPMENT        The HIGH TIMES event is initiated by well-known American lawyer and University Professor Charles Nesson who has successfully represented HIGH TIMES publishers in US ganja cases. After coming to Jamaic in the 1990s to interface with Jamaican technology development, he has since then involved himself in several social development activities including the introduction of computers in prison reform and the attempted development of a national wrestling programme.

Prof. Nesson & Ras Iyah-V

In recent years he has also involved himself with Maroon communities in Portland and Westmoreland, using his legal knowledge to encourage them to use the terms of the Maroon Treaty to claim rights in Jamaica, including the right to grow ganja on Maroon lands. His personal long-standing use and support of recreational ganja has led him to the Westmoreland ganja farmers, who he has helped form into a powerful Parish organization whose launch meeting was attended by several of the US ganja industry’s leading stars. He has the support of leading Negril personalities including Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Wykeham McNeil (whose sister has a child with Iyah-V) and a leading Negril hotel family. The professor is on record that he intends “…to make Negril the RASTA Capital of Jamaica”.

The Westmoreland Parish organization is led by RASTA farmer Iyah-V, recently appointed as a member of the Cannabis Registration Council. At a recent meeting of the Nyabinghi Council of Elders he was severely sanctioned because of issues still unresolved regarding his introduction of Snoop Dog to the Nyahbinghi House, as well as his stewardship of the finances of the Coral Gardens Survivors funds. Most of all, the Council of Elders expressed extreme disapproval of Iyah-V forming a company with the American professor and announcing plans to claim Sacramental Rights for the HIGH TIMES event their company will be presenting, as the Elders declare that the event does not fit the criteria to qualify as a Rasta Sacramental event.

The Rastafari Millenium Council warns of the introduction of foreign strains and products to Jamaica by HIGH TIMES at a time when the Jamaican ganja industry is not even on its feet. Moreover, the RASTA community fears its morals and principles will be violated by the ‘anything goes’ attitude promoted in HIGH TIMES for and by its recreational users who are expected to flood Negril in the hundreds and thousands for the event.

Will accommodating the American recreational ganja industry and filling Negril hotel rooms be more valuable than preserving the values and attitudes of the culture that has made the world focus on Jamaica, Ganja and RASTA?  Is this all that will remain of RASTA in the new ganja industry – a Bob Marley picture on a beauty queen’s T-shirt?

STOP BLAMING THE CESS – Ganja in Mental Health

For too long Ganja has been given a bad name as a chief cause of mental ill health. Science has not researched this thoroughly. Now that research into the Science of Ganja has commenced, more research can be done on what could cause a plant so praised for its positive mental effect, to be victimized as the opposite.

As a Chick-V sufferer from October 2014, I spent a lot of time on the Internet searching for cures for the aches and pains I was suffering. I found several valuable suggestions of such natural healers as Tumeric, Ginger, Garlic, Moringa and Neem, as well as supplements like Magnesium, Potassium and the B Vitamins. Researching these supplements, I noticed that most of them were also recommended for use in mental health problems of Anxiety, Depression and Panic Attacks. It appeared that these remedies all worked on restoring not merely the body, but especially the brain’s functions.

As I read through the links to mental health, I thought about the many young friends I know who are suffering from mental health problems. It seems like an ailment that was rare and confined to the poorer classes, has now become a rite of passage for several of the 20-30 year old youths I know. The forms of their psychosis can be mild disengagement with home life, or extremes like young Fray who tried to hijack a plane. What is common to those suffering from these forms of mental illness is that parents and friends always blame it on their use of ganja. “Ganja makes you mad,” is the usual criticism made about ganja use and stories abound of yet another 20-year-old being taken to Ward 21, the UWI mental health ward.

MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY      

However, when I searched deeper in the internet for causes of Anxiety, Depression and Panic attacks, I found that while ‘drug abuse’ is often given as one habit that can cause these symptoms, I found there were several other causes with an even greater link to the problem. Several pages tell that mental illness has its roots in the breakdown of brain functions through the absence of certain minerals without which the brain cannot function efficiently. Magnesium is one of the most important.

Nearly EVERYONE has signs of magnesium deficiency but we don’t realize it. Full-blown health problems can be tied to this crucial mineral. Most people with ANY chronic disease or issue benefit greatly from magnesium supplementation therapy. This is because chronic illness causes stress, and stress depletes magnesium. We’re being poisoned by our food, we’re increasingly stressed out, we’re running our engines on high to keep up with life and it’s draining us. Stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium and stressful experiences lead to depletion of magnesium stores.

We’re eating more sugar than ever. Every single molecule of sugar you consume drags over 50 times the amount of magnesium out of your body. Low levels in the soil and modern farming techniques deplete stores of magnesium. Nowadays, nearly everyone is magnesium deficient – no test needed. Refined/processed foods are stripped of their mineral, vitamin, and fiber content. These are anti-nutrient foods because they actually steal magnesium in order to be metabolized. When consumed, they demand that we supplement with magnesium or we are destined to break down eventually due to severe deficiency.

Using marijuana tends to deplete the body’s stores of magnesium. Over time, if used consistently without proper balance via magnesium replenishment, it can and will cause magnesium deficiency. But mental health illness is merely one of many results of magnesium depletion. In fact, a regular intake of magnesium would obviously counteract any depletion of the body’s stores.

PINEAL GLAND – THE SEAT OF KNOWLEDGE

In my search for mental health solutions, I healing found websites that discussed the brain as a seat of spiritual knowledge and activity. One page informed that the brain’s pineal gland was once dubbed the “Third Eye,” for its location deep in the center of the brain which the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes called the “principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed.” The important role of the Pineal Gland is in forming melatonin to regulate body rhythms. If the function of the ‘Third Eye’ is faulty, it will cause irregularity in one’s ability to remain spiritually calm and centered — sane.

While searching for causes of malfunctioning of the Pineal Gland, I found several articles accusing fluoride of causing calcification of the Pineal Gland. I also came across an article recommending Tumeric as a healer for ‘decalcifying the pineal gland’ caused by fluoride!

FLUORIDE – THE TOXIN IN TOOTHPASTE

Fluoride is found everywhere today, from antibiotics to drinking water, no-stick pans to toothpaste, making exposure inevitable. Fluoride’s neurotoxicity has been the subject of academic debate for decades, and now a matter of increasingly impassioned controversy among the general public, as well. From ‘conspiracy theories’ about it being first used in drinking water in Russian and Nazi concentration camps to chemically lobotomize captives, to its now well-known IQ lowering properties, to its ability to increase the calcification of the pineal gland – the traditional ‘seat of the soul’ – many around the world are starting to organize at the local and national level to get rid of this toxic addition to our drinking water.

A new study published in the Pharmacognosy Magazine adds support to the suspicion that fluoride is indeed a brain-damaging substance, the various health effects associated with which include Tension and Anxiety disorders such as OCD.

FLUORIDE IN JAMAICA

For the past 30 years, under orders from the Ministry of Health, fluoride has been added to Jamaica’s water and table salt, as well as most of the toothpastes sold on the market. The original reason was to provide better dental health care, and fluoride has had success is improving the dental health of the nation. But looking at the fact that it is the 20-30 year Jamaican youths born since fluoridated water and salt were made mandatory in their diets who are routinely becoming mental health patients, we must look to this as a factor in their illness other than marijuana and consider using new treatment methods.

FLUORIDE IN MENTAL HEALTH

Traditionally mental health patients have been given expensive medication with horrible side effects and fail to have successful and permanent cures. Reading the volume of supporting information online, I think doses of magnesium and the use of turmeric in teas and a well-regulated diet would be more effective in mental health care than ‘the injection’ and the highly expensive pills.

Fluoride is a heavy duty poison and should be avoided at all costs as it calcifies the pineal tissue and basically shuts the gland down. We need to shed scientific light on the matter and to conduct some studies on fluoride in our diets. Knowing now its serious side effects on mental health – the most difficult illness to cure — we need to ask whether fluoride should cease to be a compulsory addition in our water and salt, or merely an option for toothpastes and mouth wash products. Western countries are calling for fluoride bans and Jamaica should not be alone in speaking out about the side effects just becoming apparent in the first generation exposed to it for their entire life.

We need to stop blaming mental health illness on the use of marijuana and discover instead how to use the positive therapeutic content of the plant to help in the cure.

Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah

THE ASSOCIATION OF RASTAFARI MEDIA –

Rastafari as a medium for social change in a world desperately seeking moral rectitude, rearmament and regeneration.       BY SHANGO BAKU

Having withstood the extreme challenges to our existence, having achieved social legitimacy against all odds, Rastafari is now established in every land on earth. Today there is no nation without its quota of adherents to the movement. Throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle and Far East, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands, communities and outposts of Rastafari have sprung up organically, often with their own interpretation and orientation regarding doctrine, teachings and livity. The music of reggae borne on the airwaves, though universally popular, is no longer a reliable medium for disseminating the true culture of Rastafari. Many rising communities, particularly in Africa, are prone to follow the teachings of individuals, rather than the basic tenets laid down by the elders since the inception of the movement and enhanced by the teachings of His Imperial Majesty, our Third and Living Testament. Hence there is a gap to be filled and a problem to be solved.

Often confusion arises from the diversity of doctrines and interpretations fed to gullible young minds that have not been grounded in Rastafari livity. This has created factions and divisions, both at grassroots levels and in general perceptions and responses among localised movements. The profusion of Rastafari websites since the turn of the millennium has served to exacerbate rather than resolve this issue. Social media is by nature superficial, short-term, second-hand and incapable of conveying deep or enduring messages that can feed and nurture the human spirit. Jah-rusalem schoolroom is a face-to-face experience that does not easily translate to Facebook, Twitter, U-tube and Linked-in. Though we should not disparage or reject these communication portals our usage of them should be seasoned by awareness of their benefits as well as their dangers and limitations.

The centralisation and organisation of Rastafari media needs to be administered by a duly constituted and authorised body acting under the auspices of the elders and major mansions of Rastafari. The Association of Rastafari Media (ARM) must develop a practice guided by agreed rules, guidelines, disciplines and procedures, rooted in a system of accountability, transparency and due diligence, ultimately responsible to the Word of His Imperial Majesty. The work of compiling Rastafari publications since the 1960s has already been taken up by WRAP (the Written Rastafari Archives Project), which could serve as a prototype for the ARM, providing an invaluable resource for institutions and individuals worldwide seeking authoritative information on the movement.

The impetus for ARM must be generated from the identifiable needs of the global community:

1. Communication

Rastafari communities, houses and individuals are spread across the length and breadth of the globe. We share the same problems, face the same issues, challenges and confrontations. New communities may undergo problems that have been overcome by older established ones. Communication is absolutely vital if we are to respond to victimisation with tried and proven strategies, to speak with a single voice, to react in unison, to diffuse tensions and tribal tendencies, and to project a coherent and co-ordinated lifestyle wherever we are. Unity is our greatest strength. One Haile Selassie, One Aim, One Destiny.

2. Information

Similar to the above, clear and consistent information on the movement is necessary, particularly the history of the Jamaican movement as a crucial reference point for InI origins in this dispensation. His Imperial Majesty’s exile in Britain (1936-41) when He shook the Great Powers gathered in Geneva, the valley of Jehoshaphat, and mediated in judgement for the rights of Ethiopia and for all small nations that were threatened by bullying aggressors, needs to be documented and overstood. The Shashemane experience, the story of the Gift Land of our Father, is also highly relevant to an informed overview of Rastafari today and our efforts towards Repatriation. Access to exhibition materials such as were displayed in Discovering Rastafari (Smithsonian 2008), the current Institute of Jamaica exhibition on Rastafari, and The Majesty and the Movement Exhibition planned for Ethiopia in May 2014, all provide invaluable profiles on Rastafari in the millennium. The Written Rastafari Archives Project (WRAP) will add an important dimension by compacting already published information from within the movement.

3. Mediation

Rastafari has provided the building-blocks for reshaping a new world order based on peace and love. Today we witness the crumbling of a world system mounted on capitalism, the ruthless exploitation of human and natural resources in pursuit of world domination through might and force. The predictions and prophecies of a small ostracised and demonised community – Rastafari – have become reality in today’s world. Babylon the great has fallen, is falling and will continue to fall even as we speak. All her face-saving attempts to escape and preclude that fall, all her cosmetic media concoctions cannot hide the cracks in her foundation and the collapse of her iniquitous empire. A revolution of awesome proportions has galvanised the roots of global societies in pursuit of human rights, equality and justice. InI must take our place at the forefront of change. We are the forerunners who have lit the torch of revolution in the modern world. As a final line of defence for human decency and dignity we are the advocates and arbiters for righteous stewardship of our planet.

His Imperial Majesty urges us to speak out on global issues in blunt terms of right and wrong. The proposed ARM will be a forum for Rastafari works, thoughts and opinions on world affairs. His Imperial Majesty urges us to stamp our imprint on the present as it moves inexorably towards the future. Informally, we have been a force for change and moral re-adjustment in global communities. It is no co-incidence that the sound of Rastafari music is heard in world revolutions today – from the Middle East to Greece and Turkey, the strains of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Culture, Lucky Dube et al fill the airwaves of protest. We must go further. Formally, and with bold intent, we must influence world opinion at the highest level as a strident voice in the councils of nations. As He is so are we. As He has done, so must InI.

4. Education

All the above initiatives add up to a re-education of Caribbean, African and world youth as to the values of an alternative social order based on equity and peace. His Imperial Majesty’s pursuit of education as a primary objective in the reconstruction of Ethiopia should find an echo in all our works. Our focus must continue to be towards mental liberation, the battle for the minds of the disaffected. The Rastafari Creed must invoke a new curriculum: that the hungry be fed, the naked clothed, the sick nourished, the aged protected and the infants cared for. This five-point agenda should underpin our media aspirations and empower our efforts to publicise and enshrine the writ of Rastafari in the comity of nations. No task is too great for InI to accomplish in His Name.

Ultimately, the Association of Rastafari Media must constitute a meeting point of minds, hearts and irits, locked in a singular commitment to disseminate the Rastafari message: words and works, principles, doctrine, livity, history, literature, and directives for a better world. InI victory is already assured. In this 21st century, with faith courage and a just cause.

LEGALIZATION – PUBLIC PRESSURE NEEDED

Just as we thought nothing was happening on the Legalize Ganja front, Minister of Justice Mark Golding surprised Jamaica on September 23 with a Parliamentary announcement that Cabinet has approved his proposals for legislation to make possession of two ounces or less of ganja a non-arrestable, ticketable infraction that does not result in a criminal record; to align the treatment of the smoking of ganja with the recent Public Health regulations that prohibit smoking in public spaces; to allow for the possession and use of ganja for religious purposes; to allow for the possession and use of ganja for therapeutic purposes as prescribed by a medical practitioner, and to enable approved scientific research.

The Minister announced that with Cabinet approval now in place, drafting instructions will shortly go to the Legislation Committee of Cabinet for review, after which it will be taken to Cabinet for approval to be tabled in Parliament before the end of the year.

AMENDING THE DANGEROUS DRUGS ACT       However, the Dangerous Drugs Act will have to be amended, bearing in mind that Jamaica is still governed by the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs that prohibits cultivation and possession. Golding promises to amend the Dangerous Drugs Act by the end of the year to permit the cultivation, possession, import, export, transportation, manufacture, sale, possession and distribution of ganja for medical and scientific purposes under license, as well as establishment of a Licensing Authority to govern the licensing processes for participation in the medicinal ganja industry, and a public education campaign to ensure the changes in the law are understood and accepted.

Amending the international treaty needs public pressure and the Minister advises that Jamaica’s efforts to change the UN Single Convention MUST come through pressure from the Jamaican people. The voice of the people must be heard loudly and internationally to make this happen, so activists in all corners of the legalization campaign must work hard to show the changes Jamaica wants come from the people, not just from the government.

Minister Mark Golding & Ras IyahV

WHGFA APPROVES            Westmoreland Hemp and Ganja Farmers Association (WHGFA) Leader Ras Iyah V was among the ganja activists delighted with the announcement of legislation proposed, and congratulated Justice Minister Mark Golding in very positive terms, saying: “The WHGFA thanks the Justice Minister for his courage and staying true to his words. This is another step in the right direction as we keep the fire burning.”

The WHGFA is the most active group of Ganja farmers, based as they are in the world-famous ganja-growing Parish and having started early to organize and register their farmers. They report several positive meetings with the Minister at which they have explained the position of their members, as well as to actively press for the necessary reforms. At the recent monthly meeting, WHGFA’s leaders expressed optimism that the Minister’s steps to legalization will be completed by the end of 2014 as promised, as they intend to proceed with plans to hold a major seminar and cultural event in May 2015 at which all aspects of ganja production will be discussed and the judging of Jamaica’s first Cannabis Cup will take place.

The WHGFA has high hopes of creating an annual event that will celebrate Jamaica’s renowned reputation as the home of the world’s best ganja, while at the same time enhancing and expanding the research and production of Jamaica’s medical marijuana industry. Accordingly, the WHGFA has Petitioned the Government for non-enforcement of the Ganja Laws in Westmoreland so as to enable growers to freely produce the best ganja possible for the occasion. This event, which is receiving positive interest from world-famous ganja magazine HIGH TIMES, will bring hundreds of international guests to fill Negril’s hotel rooms and to buy and sell ganja products of all kinds.

WIPE THE RECORDS               A key aspect of Minister Golding’s Parliamentary statement was the assurance of the wiping of the records of those convicted of possessing small amounts of ganja – a demand that formed the major basis of the Jamaica People’s Cannabis Development Council’s WIPE THE RECORDS Petition. The death of Mario Deane on Independence Day after imprisonment for smoking a ganja spliff, created a national outrage that made him a sacrifice on the altar of Jamaica’s ganja laws.

The Minister of National Security had to step into the furore that attracted international legal activists and advise his Police force that though the law was not yet passed, they should act on Government’s intention to finally make possession of small amounts of ganja a ticketable offense, without arrest or imprisonment. However, no details have yet been announced of how one’s record can be wiped, whether this will be automatic or how and where one may apply for such.

Josh Stanley & patient Charlotte

MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCH       Though Jamaica is ranked second in the category of attractiveness in the 2014 Medical Tourism Index (MTI) released mid-September, the development of Jamaica’s medical marijuana industry is as yet unclear. The University of the West Indies and the Scientific Research Council have signed Memoranda of Understanding with US, Israeli and Canadian companies, including Josh Stanley who developed the Charlotte’s Web strain for young epileptics, but as yet there is no announcement of how private companies will do business. We have been informed that applicants will be invited to register companies that intend to research, develop and produce medical marijuana, but the methodology is yet to come for those impatient to begin.

As a GLEANER Editorial reminded us: “Four decades ago, Jamaican scientists were at the forefront of research on the medicinal use of ganja. They developed a drug for glaucoma, among others. Unfortunately, weak institutional arrangements and the absence of a clear national policy contributed to a lag, reversal even, of these efforts. The upshot – Jamaica lost its advantage of being first and the marketing advantage of the perception of having the world’s most potent ganja. This kind of market positioning will not be easy to claw back, especially in the face of a growing awareness of the potential economic and scientific advantage of marijuana, including in the United States…”  

INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURS                  US companies are ready to enter Jamaica’s ganja business. Already a Colorado-based company has announced a 50% partnership with a group of Jamaicans to establish a marijuana medical research lab in Kingston to focus on “advancing the use of cannabis in medical therapies through bio-medical and pharmaceutical research and development, within Jamaica to position the company to benefit from legislation that is expected to decriminalize marijuana for medical purposes by the end of the year.”

The company says it hopes to benefit from the variety of strains of ganja available in Jamaica, declaring it brings not only an extensive knowledge of the cannabis plant and its properties, saying their ability “…to leverage technology and incorporate systems within the breeding process will be invaluable as they pursue the vast opportunities here in Jamaica for licensing their seed-to-sale business model and receive a percentage of their gross revenues as their fees, offering to provide training, staffing services and the right locations for cultivation and production of activated oils, smokable concentrates, infused products, topical lotions, pills, and sublingual transdermal patches, among other products”.

This announcement raised widespread alarm among concerned Jamaicans, whose Future Growers Association says it is determined to see that all ganja development companies are majority owned by Jamaicans. WHGFA’s Kubba Pringle commented on Facebook: “This is not Bauxite, Sugar cane, Coffee,Tourism and all those other stuff that our leaders sold. What we have is much greater than money can buy, but to ensure that the Farmers and Grassroots people benefit, we want the labs in the same areas where the Herbs is grown. Bring all the machines and Scientists here, so where the Herbs is produced everyone can benefit and the Country grow. We especially in Westmoreland will not be sending our Ganja away, the finished product will have to be made in Jamaica.”

As Jamaica awaits new details and the promised new legislation, the legalization campaign continues and the struggle is not yet over. But one thing is certain, as the RASTA Nyabinghi chant goes: “The hotter the battle, the sweeter the victory.” Let us keep the pressure up.

(c) Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah

DEAFENING SILENCE on GANJA LEGALIZATION

THE MARIO DEANE TRAGEDY

There’s a deafening silence on the matter of Ganja legalization that has had a tragic outcome in the death of Mario Deane, a 30-year-old employed Jamaican with no criminal record, whose only fault was to prefer a smoke of ganja, rather than tobacco.

The Mario Deane tragedy is clear evidence that the Government’s slow steps to legalization are a problem, rather than an encouragement. Announcing that it had accepted the recommendation of the Jamaican People’s Cannabis Development Council, the Government announced that it would WIPE THE RECORDS of all convictions for personal ganja use . Justice Minister Golding also announced that ganja smokers would be allowed to possess 20 ounces of ganja for personal use and that in future arrests for personal use would be ticketed, not arrested, fingerprinted and jailed. But the Minister failed to have the necessary legislation implemented that would make these proposals more than just Government public relations promises.

MARIO THOUGHT HE COULD SMOKE A SPLIFF
While the public waited for what they were certain would be the immediate passage of the legislation in a Parliament whose members on both sides were supportive of ganja legalization, Mario Deane –like many of us ganja smokers – thought the Government’s promise meant that he could smoke a spliff as comfortably as if it was a cigarette and stood on a Montego Bay street corner enjoying his morning smoke. Poor Mario!

He was arrested and – because he was bold enough to express his dislike of the way in which his arrest was conducted – denied bail and placed in a cell where he was subjected to a beating that left him so badly injured that he died. The arresting officers, secure in the knowledge that the law against smoking a spliff was still in place, had smiled smugly as they locked him in a cell with mentally and physically challenged men, one of whom had been there for 2 months without any of his family being informed of his whereabouts and one of whom was deaf and dumb.

The Jamaican people, who all have horror stories about treatment of the police to themselves, their family and their friends, believe the beating was done by members of the police force. The police say that Mario Deane was set upon and beaten to death by the ‘mad men’ in the cell who refused him a cell bed. The police claim to have been unaware of the danger Mario Deane would face locked up with these three men, and they seem to have not heard the sounds of the brutal beating or Mario Dean’s cries for help that would surely have come from such a beating. I wonder what caused them to eventually check on the cell and find Mario dying!

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
The Government jumped in quickly to quell the national furore that arose out of Mario Dean’s death. The Minister in charge of the Police force issued verbal instructions that while the Government’s intention to change the law was still just a pre-election promise, the Police should begin acting as if it was law. The Prime Minister, perhaps embarrassed at the tragic effect of her Government’s unfulfilled promises, made a quiet, secret call to Mario Dean’s family offering her condolences – but no apologies – for what had happened to Mario while in the custody and care of her employees who had sworn to ‘serve and protect’ her citizens. But both these actions were too little, too late. Mario Deane was already dead.

As the citizens of Jamaica expressed their outrage, horror and disbelief at the cruel way in which a simple ganja smoker had met his death, they took to the streets, the airwaves and the power of social media to bring the nation to a state of anger and panic in which the words “Time for a …” were now being coupled with the word “… revolution” in place of the previously used word “change”. The police force — already under severe national and international condemnation for the hundreds of extra-judicial murders they have become famously accused of committing — fell even deeper to the bottom of the population’s respect for them. As the nation expressed its disgust and contempt for all wearers of the red-stripe and khaki uniforms of brutality, good cops were now tarred by the bad.

SLOW PACE OF LEGALIZATION
The Mario Deane tragedy is a direct outcome of the slow pace of legalization promised by the Government. It was with a sense of mission accomplished that I received the Government’s announcement of its intention to WIPE THE RECORDS, for which the JPCDC had petitioned the Prime Minister and Inter-Ministerial Committee. Yet, the inaction since that announcement only proves that Government had only co-opted the JPCDC’s popular demand as just a promise, with implementation not actually worked out. Similarly, they announced that personal ganja possession would only be a ticketed offence, yet Mario Deane died waiting for that promise to be kept.

The deafening silence continues as the nation waits for the Parliamentary debate that will, hopefully, deliver on these promises to do what the nation wants them to do for the good of the nation. And move on quickly towards legalization, with all the committees appointed, meetings held, recommendations made and memoranda of association signed. (By the way, is Jamaica – through the UWI – still working with Israel on medical research, after Gaza?)

WESTMORELAND’S BOLD MOVE
Meantime, the Westmoreland Hemp and Ganja Farmers Association have made a bold move, petitioning the Government for a declaration of non-enforcement of the Ganja Laws in the Parish so as to allow it to become a pilot project for growing and production in a manner that will be a blueprint for the remainder of the island. As Jamaica moves forward to legalization, the WHGFA wants to be allowed to freely grow some excellent herb for medicinal production, research, herbal, cosmetic and cultural uses without fear of the penalty of arrest.

The boldness of this request is commendable, Westmoreland being known far and wide as the producers of the world’s best ganja. The WHGFA wants to present an international academic conference at which eminent speakers would present papers discussing the international drug laws and treaties and the strategies that can be adopted to exempt ganja from the schedule of dangerous drugs. At the same time a cultural festival would frame the Seminar, including a Cannabis Cup competition that would showcase the best ganja in all its many forms making it a magnet for thousands of international visitors. (PHOTO: Seattle Hempfest)

The optimism of the plan is understandable, and as the signers of the Petition include Paul Burke and Delano Seivewright, the PNP and JLP leaders who set up the government’s ganja legalization action and have been its ‘midwives’ so far, thus there is great hope that this Petition will be positively received. If it is, it will certainly bring a host of visitors and economic benefits to the Parish, its farmers and its people at all levels, as well as highlighting Westmoreland’s potential to lead in the responsible cultivation and marketing of one of Jamaica’s best known crops.

Marcus Garvey — 100 years of the UNIA

BLACK PHILOSOPHY & IDEAS In 1972, newly returned to Jamaica fleeing 8 years of living with racial prejudice in England, I attended an event at the Sheraton Kingston hotel to hear a speech by Evonne Goolagong, an Australian half-Aboriginee girl who had just won Wimbledon. I did not know that whatever admiration I then had for this girl who had just made Black history, would pale by comparison with the eye-opening shock of hearing a frail, 82-year old woman speak about a true Black Hero whose life and philosophy she demanded that we follow. She was Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey and the man she spoke of was her husband Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

I had never heard of Mr. Garvey before that day. My education in Black History had begun only a few years earlier in England, where racism made me absorb all the “Black is beautiful” information then being spread by American activists of the Black Power movement. I knew about Martin and Malcolm and even Elijah Muhammad, but not Marcus. So it was electrifying for me to hear this small, but fiery woman speak passionately about what Marcus Garvey stood for – the mental as well as physical liberation of the Black mind. This woman’s words led me on the path I am still trodding today. They forced me to read her publication of Garvey’s Philososphy and Opinions and to find how accurately they completed the information necessary for my full mental liberation from slavery.

Of course, in stepping onto the path of Garvey knowledge, I encountered the people who Garvey’s words had inspired to not only seek to return to the African Motherland from which their ancestors had been taken, but – even more importantly – to see Black Divinity in a Crowned African Emperor whose dynasty stretched back in ecclesiastical history to Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, David and Jerusalem, H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie whose 122nd birthday was celebrated this week.

Beloved Bongo Time

KEEPERS OF GARVEY’S FLAME          I thus became set firmly on the Rastafari pathway, seeking knowledge where I could. I found the best interpretation of Garvey’s teachings among the Rastafari elders, the true and most faithful keepers of Marcus Garvey’s flame. In true Garveyite principle, Rastafari were always calling Garvey the Prophet who pointed Black people in the West to their African homeland. Rastafari were always the most visible and outspoken Jamaicans speaking out about Garvey at celebrations and events, flying the Black, Red and Green banner of the UNIA next to the Ethiopian Red, Gold and Green. Garvey, Emperor Haile Selassie and EAIBC Priest Prince Emanuel, are depicted in RASTA iconography as the Holy Trinity.

The relationship has not always been a smooth one. There was a recent time when the UNIA and Rastafari were not close, both sides quoting Garvey’s condemnation of Emperor Selassie for leaving Ethiopia for asylum from the Italian invasion. Those days are far gone, as a dreadlocksed, professed Rastafarian is now leader of the Jamaican UNIA. Garvey has become respected by the ‘middle classes’ and even more RASpected than ever by the masses from which Garvey rose and who always followed him.

As for those not of Garvey’s race or mindset who are still uncomfortable about Garvey’s sole focus on race – some even terming it ‘Black racism’ – the ‘race’ puss is well out of the bag, thanks more to a reflection of the gains of the US civil rights movements, than any effort by the UNIA at home and abroad. I am certain that many still think it’s dangerous to teach Black people to take hold of their destiny based solely on their Blackness.

GARVEY IN SCHOOLS               The fight to teach Garvey in Jamaican schools as not just a figure in history but what he said, has not yet been won. It would clearly need a complete re-order of the Jamaican ‘System’, based on Garvey’s teachings. World History would begin in Egypt, not Greece and instead of the Middle Ages, would focus on Africa and the development of the Caribbean through the Slave Trade. Mathematics would be part of a Science curriculum including Engineering. Teaching of the Arts and Literature would be practical, hands-on. Teaching Business Management would begin at Primary level, producing graduates with practical experience seeking to provide Africa with trained development specialists in several fields and thereby providing the home nation with economic and trade alliances with other Black nations and people.

Potential Jamaican leaders often tiptoe around the matter of Race (with a capital ‘R’), pretending it is invisible when 99% of the crowd is African-descended. An enlightened leadership could use Garvey as the captain to steer the ship of State into prosperous waters, with wise communication programmes in which race becomes regarded as a quality of pride on which to restore a nation and people, instead of still being regarded as a negative – despite all the words and hard work of Mr. Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

WHAT IF????                As a close viewer of Jamaican history from Independence to today, I sincerely wonder where Jamaica would be today if Michael Manley and the 1970s PNP had used Garvey to inspire the people to support the good steps he tried to take to change Jamaica, instead of aligning with Castro to support his Democratic Socialism. Perhaps he considered it, because he rode to his 1972 election victory on the simmering Black Power movement the JLP had tried to suppress, and on the Afrocentric music of the rising Rastafari movement. But Race could not have seemed a good hook on which to hang a philosophy then, in place of which there was universal emotion for Fidel and alignment with all the African freedom movements then taking place, that led him to ignore the predictable response of the USA to prevent the success of his political move.

Perhaps the Garvey way would have meant legalizing Ganja and making Jamaica an outlaw state for a few years while the country built some schools, houses, roads, hospitals with the Green Gold. Like the government is trying to do today. Too late, perhaps. Well, it’s the same government, one generation younger. We can never know how serious or how genuine politicians can be when they make promises in speeches. We can only look and see if what they say comes to pass.

MY PERSONAL GARVEY TRIBUTE               Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey so inspired me to spread the words of Marcus Garvey, that in 1972 I started writing articles about Garvey and his philosophy. Each year on his Birthday I would send a Letter to the GLEANER Editor (then Hector Wynter) that would usually be that paper’s only or main memorial. In 1981, while doing some voluntary PR service for the UNIA, I proposed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (then Hon. Dudley Thompson) that the Ministry building be re-named the Marcus Garvey Building. He accepted and the name still stands on what is now the Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston.

In 1986, while serving as an Independent Opposition Senator in the Jamaican Parliament, I led a debate in which I proposed that the upcoming Centenary of the birth of Hon. Marcus Garvey be celebrated as a National holiday. The Government, led by then- Minister of Culture Hon. Olivia Grange, voted against the proposal, saying the country could not afford a holiday. And, my favourite Garvey link of all, was being put in charge of the activities surrounding the 1975 unveiling of Garvey’s statue at the St. Ann Parish Library. After a sunny day and bright afternoon, as soon as the ceremony began Mr. Garvey decided to attend ‘in the whirlwind and storm’ and a thunderous downpour swamped the event, preventing any photographs from capturing the actual unveiling by Michael Manley. Read into that what you will.

These have been the main ways in which I have sought to pay tribute to the freeing of my mind by Mr. Garvey’s philosophy and teachings. They revised my thinking about myself as a Black person and made me proud for the first time to be Black. They gave me a motivation for my future focus and work, and they confirmed that my choice of Rastafari as my life and spiritual pathway is appropriate and totally in keeping with what Mr. Garvey taught. I think Mr. Garvey would be proud to meet me. I, of course, would be BLESSED to meet him.

MANY FLAWS IN JA GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS TO DECRIMINALIZE GANJA

by Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah

The JAMAICAN PEOPLE’S CANNABIS DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL is pleased that its WIPE THE RECORDS campaign caused Government to place our demands top of its agenda and plans for Ganja ‘decriminalization’. But the widespread celebration of the announcement is unjustified and the euphoria will soon subside. as people come to realize that nothing has really changed and that instead some of our fears have come to pass in the Cabinet’s proposals.

Yes, Government says it’s now OK for me to carry 2 ounces (how much is that?) of Ganja on my person, but the person who will be growing more than that amount to supply my 2 oz, will still be breaking the law against growing Ganja! Nothing has changed there. He is still criminalized! Ganja is not decriminalized for him.

DRUG ABUSER?
And if I thought that being ‘ticketed’ by Police with a simple fine or 30 days community service was all we Ganja smokers would now face instead of arrest and criminal records, Government proposes to replace this possibility by giving Police the right to determine if I am ‘an adult who appears to be dependent on Ganja’, who must compulsorily attend the Drug Abuse Center on that Policeman’s decision. My eyes are open to realize that my life is now at risk at the hands of any policeman. I wonder what kind of training Police will now be given to enable them to factually determine who is ‘dependent on Ganja’, especially as it has been proven that there is no such thing as a ‘Ganja dependency’.

Further, dashing hopes of those who planned to open an ‘irie’ business where people could relax and smoke their 2 ounces of Ganja, the Cabinet witholds from Ganja smokers the rights it gives cigaretts smokers to have designated public smoking areas. Why the double standard? And what about tourists – will they be allowed 2 ounces too? As Mr. Golding’s Cabinet insists that they will NOT be freeing Ganja smoking for ‘recreational’ purposes, I guess that means those times when i’m just chilling on a beach, or relaxing with friends or anything else that is neither ‘sacramental’ or ‘medical’, I will be breaking the law. It looks to me like it’s still illegal to chill and smoke some Ganja!

HUMAN RIGHTS
I applaud Minister Golding for recognising that Ganja use is a human rights issue and that as such, RASTA have human rights to its use. But I can forsee a great problem when Government decides who is a Rasta and thereby allowed to smoke Ganja ‘sacramentally’. How even is ‘sacramental smoking’ defined? Does Government propose to be the authority to identify, decide and register Rasta sacramental spaces, or will Rastas be invited to apply for such designations? What will stop Rastas from declaring their homes, their cars, their businesses places, their open lots ‘sacramental spaces’?

The medical ganja businesses, local and especially the international companies with whom the UWI has signed Memoranda of Understanding, will be undoubtedly pleased at Cabinet’s proposals, as the medical ganja business is the only sector to benefit. Minister Golding’s presentation gives them alone the right to farm ganja and to produce medicine and medical goods. The Cabinet’s proposals make no mention of agreements signed for medicines produced by any group of Jamaican Ganja farmers. I would have hoped to see some inclusion of a Rasta business in this group, in recognition of the role RASTA has played in keeping alive the “Legalize It’ campaign for more than 8 decades. Instead, it appears that the persons who will be the first recipients of income from Government’s proposals for Jamaica to earn from Ganja, are not going to be any of the original planters, growers and users.

One thing that’s missing from the Proposals is any indication of how revenues from medical Ganja industries will be collected and used. The Jamaican People’s Cannabis Development Council proposes that Marijuana Taxes be used to finance a FREE national health service for Jamaica.  But where the Ganja money will go, needs to be explained in the final proposal.

NOTHING’S CHANGED
So did they ‘legalize it’? Not as far as I can see. Wiping the records was the ace card – and I hope the cost of restoring one’s good name will be kept minimum as an apology for the hurt and suffering the law has caused so many. But the proposals to decriminalize only set some things free, including the congested courts, jails and prisons. Everything’s changed for some, but nothing’s really changed for personal use. Growers are still criminals. As Ministe r Golding explains at the end of his Cabinet’s proposals, the Law remains unchanged for now – at least, for the next 3 months while Cabinet considers it. As our rulers who must listen to the voice of the people, Cabinet expects to hear the opinions of many Jamaicans on their proposals, before making a final decision.

Please do not let me be the only one to offer them an opinion on their Proposals, whether you agree with them or not. Our much-praised democratic rights give us the freedom to express our views.Our views are important. We showed that with the WIPE THE RECORDS campaign.

MEDICAL GANJA TAXES FOR FREE HEALTH CARE

by BARBARA BLAKE HANNAH

After my recent comments on the Cabinet’s proposals for decriminalization of Ganja, I have listened and read with interest the media comments by members of the public.  Not surprisingly, the newspapers, radio and television all give the impression the public is extremely happy, with the most enthusiastic Letter of the Day demanding that as PNP and JLP united to come up with the Government’s ganja proposals, so also they should unite to govern Jamaica.  Great idea!

Local and global media reports have focused solely on the proposal to allow personal use of Ganja with reduced penalties. None have mentioned the fact that the growers and suppliers of personal-use Ganja will remain illegal. All are happy to welcome Jamaica into the global loosening of the stigma against Ganja by cautiously allowing it to be grown and used for its medical properties only. The thought that Jamaica  could follow and perhaps go further than Holland and  Colorado, has been completely ignored by the mainstream media comments.

No one has commented yet about the shutting out of RASTA from the economic benefits to be gained from the Government’s proposals, which only permit growing and selling of Ganja by the companies and agencies they signed up with BEFORE taking the idea to the public. No one has asked how Government and its agencies will determine who is a RASTA and permitted to benefit under its proposals.

Fortunately, the RASTA lions are not asleep.  The Westmoreland Hemp & Ganja Farmers Association has challenged the Proposals and has declared its intention to use its Rastafari Indigenous Cultural Rights to the growing and use of Ganja, to plant 50 acres for sale to fulfill a contract with a Canadian company. According to the Government’s proposals, only Government will be allowed to grow and sell through the companies and agencies it has contracts with.  In this action, the WHGF is thinking identical to the Petition proposal by the Jamaica People’s Cannabis Development Council, that licensed Ganja growers be allowed to negotiate and sell their products directly to buyers, having paid Government tax.

It will be interesting to watch this challenge, as it is inevitable that RASTA will one day take the issue of the movement’s indigenous cultural rights to the United Nations International Court. It is clear that day has come with not only the matter of Ganja, but also the matter of Pinnacle, where the descendants of Leonard P. Howell are taking their challenge against the destruction of their father’s legacy.

WHAT TO DO?       It seems likely that both sides of Parliament will endorse the Government’s proposals when they are laid on the Table of the House in 3 months time.  With visions of Ganja Dollars floating in their minds for financing any number of political dreams, the result seems inevitable, unless there is some serious public outcry against any of the proposals. Longtime Ganja advocate Lord Anthony Gifford has written: “Let us follow Colorado and Uruguay – remove the stigma of criminality from those who grow and use the ganja plant, and legislate for a system of licensed distribution from which our people can truly benefit – medically, spiritually and economically“.  That’s what needs to happen.

MY PROPOSAL:     We also have not yet been informed where Ganja taxes will be collected under which Minister or agency, nor how they will be used. I have a proposal:  Let the Ganja Dollars be used to finance a FREE National Health Service for Jamaica.  If we are only allowed to grow it for medicine, let the income be used to care for our people. Rasta Elder Bongo Daniel, the greatest Nyabinghi Harpsist (drummer) RASTA has ever known, should not be lying sick and old in a house with no electricity, no medicine, no food. Too many Rasta Elders are dying without money for health care. These are the same Rasta Elders who were brutalized at Coral Gardens, the same Rasta Elders who kept smoking Ganja no matter what Babylon said.  These are the same Rasta Elders who gave Jamaica its famous and lucrative RASTA Culture based on Ganja.  They deserve our care in their old age. Medical Ganja Taxes for a FREE Jamaican National Health Service.