Dear Editor,
Regarding Louis Moyston's excellent column in The Agenda of Sunday, February 1, 2015, Jamaica should by no means let the petty concerns of the 'drug war' official, William Brownfield of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, stall ganja law reform.
An obsolete United Nations treaty passed in ignorance back in 1961 that violates human rights conventions is no reason for Jamaica to remain stuck in the past. A far more important US representative is US President Barack Obama.
President Obama has given the green light to cannabis regulation in US states that have voted to tax cannabis sales and restrict youth access. Jamaica would be wise to capitalise on this green light, just in case a less enlightened leader follows Obama and uses US's superpower status to insist that cannabis consumers be treated as criminals and put in cages.
United Nations treaties that mandate such nonsense are not worth the paper they are printed on and should be disregarded as a matter of principle. The US routinely disregards United Nations treaties when it is convenient to do so.
Why should Jamaica be forced to uphold cannabis prohibition that is rooted in racism and ignorance? The global war on cannabis is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign.
Robert Sharpe, MPA
Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy
Washington, DC
rsharpe@csdp.org
Don't stall Ja's ganja law reform
-->
Regarding Louis Moyston's excellent column in The Agenda of Sunday, February 1, 2015, Jamaica should by no means let the petty concerns of the 'drug war' official, William Brownfield of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, stall ganja law reform.
An obsolete United Nations treaty passed in ignorance back in 1961 that violates human rights conventions is no reason for Jamaica to remain stuck in the past. A far more important US representative is US President Barack Obama.
President Obama has given the green light to cannabis regulation in US states that have voted to tax cannabis sales and restrict youth access. Jamaica would be wise to capitalise on this green light, just in case a less enlightened leader follows Obama and uses US's superpower status to insist that cannabis consumers be treated as criminals and put in cages.
United Nations treaties that mandate such nonsense are not worth the paper they are printed on and should be disregarded as a matter of principle. The US routinely disregards United Nations treaties when it is convenient to do so.
Why should Jamaica be forced to uphold cannabis prohibition that is rooted in racism and ignorance? The global war on cannabis is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign.
Robert Sharpe, MPA
Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy
Washington, DC
rsharpe@csdp.org
Don't stall Ja's ganja law reform
-->