The CARICOM Regional Commission on Marijuana will hold a town hall meeting on Friday to learn how Bahamians feel about the decriminalization of marijuana, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday.
The meeting is part of the commission’s mandate to ascertain public opinion in CARICOM member countries on the issue.
The meeting will take place on Friday, January 5 at the Holy Trinity Activity Centre at 6 p.m.
Bahamas Ambassador to CARICOM Reuben Rahming yesterday stressed that the meeting is “not a national debate” but a “regional assessment”.
“It does not reflect the government’s position pro or con on the matter,” he said, when called for comment.
“It is just doing as was agreed to almost two years ago, which is to begin to facilitate the assessment of that agenda item.
“The commissioners will be in. We won’t be interfering with their work and their assessment.
“We will just be facilitating, as has all other CARICOM countries that they have visited, with their research.
“After that … that information will be submitted and discussed in time for the heads of government meeting, where any further deliberations or conclusions will be discussed after review of that documentation.”
Bishop Simeon Hall, who was appointed to the CARICOM commission eight months ago, said yesterday that it is his hope that people engage in “intelligent” conversation on Friday.
He said the commission has been to five island nations in the last eight months, including Suriname, Jamaica and Trinidad.
“Marijuana is a herb that grows on almost every island nation in the Caribbean,” he said, when called for comment.
“What is being discussed is whether it has some medicinal and economic value.
“Now, the minute you talk about marijuana, people become defensive, and I don’t know anyone to be promoting the recreational usage of marijuana but to look at all the pros and cons.
“The problem of alcoholism, for instance, is so bad in our countries that some people are saying that marijuana does not have the kind of debilitating effect that alcoholism does.
“What the mission has been discussing is simply exploring all the angles involving marijuana.
“It should be clearly stated that no one is promoting simply the recreational usage, but particularly looking at medicinal usage of marijuana.”
Hall stressed that the commission simply wants to listen.
“[We are] simply listening to both sides,” he said.
“In Suriname, for instance, the people were vehemently against any decriminalization of marijuana. But in Jamaica they have already done so. In Belize they have already done so.”
The commission, established in 2014, aims to conduct studies into the “social, economic, health and legal issues surrounding marijuana use in the Caribbean and to determine whether there should be a change in the current drug classification of marijuana thereby making the drug more accessible for all types of usage (religious, recreational, medical and research)”.
It also aims to “recommend, if there is to be a reclassification, the legal and administrative conditions that shall apply”.
Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, dean of the faculty of law at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, heads the commission.
credit:thenassauguardian.com