“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
Through Red, Gold, Green Spectacles 