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.