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National Commision on Ganja Aknowledgement The National Commission on Ganja acknowledges with gratitude the hundreds of people, old and young, male and female, artisans, workers, farmers, clerical workers, health, legal and other professionals, managers, unskilled and unemployed persons, policemen, clergy, self-employed, and visitors, who thought the work of the Commission serious and worthwhile enough to be interviewed or to send written submissions, letters and electronic mail. We thank the Staff of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), in particular Mrs Deta Cheddar, the Secretary to the Commission, for facilitating our work, to the OPM in Montego Bay, and to the Local Government Officers and Social Development Commission staff in the parishes, who provided logistic and other support. The Jamaica Information Service made invaluable contribution by bringing the work of the Commission to the general public. Our thanks go as well to the various members of the communications media, who kept alive public interest in the work of the Commission. Our thanks are extended also to Chantal Ononaiwu and Natalie Ebanks for providing summaries of the laws and oral depositions, respectively, and to Ethnie Miller and Sonjah Stanley for surfing the Internet. Jacqui Getfield, an Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies, Mona, worked closely with the Chairman. We thank her and other members of the Dean's Office for their support. Special thanks to Dr Stephen Vasciannie and Lord Anthony Gifford for preparing briefs at the Commission's request, and to Professor Lambros Comitas of the Research Institute for the Study of Man, New York, for literature free of cost. Without the verbatim transcripts provided by the team of stenowriters led by Mrs Lilleth Haughton, the Commission's report would have been seriously handicapped. Special thanks, therefore, to Mrs Winnifred Mannahan and Ms Marjorie Goodgame, and to Miss Elaine Walker, Mr Garfield McKoy, Mrs Yvonne Jenkins, Mrs Clementina Barrett, Mrs Dorothy Ramsay and Ms Ursela Farquharson.
Then in 1977 the Jamaican Government set up a Joint Select Committee "to consider the criminality, legislation, uses and abuses and possible medicinal properties of ganja and to make appropriate recommendations." The Committee while rejecting legalisation, on account of Jamaica's obligation to the 1961 Convention, unanimously concluded that "[t]here was however a substantial case for decriminalizing the personal use of ganja." It recommended specific amelioration of the law, and that there should be "no punishment prescribed for the personal use of ganja up to a quantity of 2 ozs. by persons on private premises." It further recommended that ganja be lawfully prescribed for medicinal use. The
fact that these recommendations have been shelved, and that the work
of reputable scientists have been ignored would lead the sceptic to
suggest that that could well be the fate of the present Commission.
Contributing in no mean way to the scepticism is the factual consideration
that the original proscription against ganja was never based on medical
evidence, but now medical evidence is being sought to justify its
continued ban. After nine months of consultation and reflection, visits to every parish and hearings amounting to 3776 pages of transcriptions, the Commission is convinced that its recommendations will not go the way of those of all previous commissions and studies, notwithstanding the difficulties that will confront the Government due to Jamaica's ratification of UN Conventions that seek to prohibit cannabis, except for research and medical-scientific purposes. The reason for the Commission's sanguineness is what it has uncovered as an overwhelming national and growing international consensus that cannabis should be decriminalised, or at least differentiated from other banned substances. Nationally, the consensus reaches across the lines that once divided us historically, and that continue to divide us socially, to wit party, class and religion, where none seemed to have existed before, even at the time of Joint Select Committee twenty-five years ago. Internationally, hardly a week goes by without some intimation of changing attitudes to cannabis. In many States of the United States of America the use of cannabis for medical purposes has been declared legal. Earlier this year Health Canada, Canada's Ministry of Health, issued regulations to create a government-regulated system for using cannabis for medical purposes, the first country to do so. This action has been quickly sanctioned by Parliament which now makes cannabis legal in Canada for terminally ill patients and those suffering certain painful debilities. In June 2001 the British press reports on the launch of a pilot scheme in London in which cannabis offenders are simply warned and sent on their way, instead of being cautioned, arrested, charged and tried. A British Parliamentary Committee is soon to review the matter. British practice lags far behind those of the Dutch and of a growing number of other European countries which have simply decriminalised the personal use of small quantities of cannabis. Portugal, according to press reports, has taken the very bold step of decriminalising the use of all banned substances. An international momentum is clearly underway. The Report seeks to capture the extent of this national consensus. This is set out in Chapter 3, the main body of the report, but not before a discussion of the methodology (Chapter 1) by which we have undertaken our work and arrived at our conclusions, and a review of the most up-to-date scientific reports (Chapter 2). Having presented this, the Report turns to consider the legal and political implications of our general recommendation, in Chapter 4. One critical issue raised by many experts and witnesses is the attitude of the United States, and this too is taken into account in the context of discussion on our international treaty obligations. The Report concludes with a summary of the recommendations, in Chapter 5, which is followed by the Appendices. TERMS OF REFERENCE
Whereas differing views have been urged on the advisability of allowing the possession of specified quantities of ganja, its permissible use by adults within private premises, while continuing to prohibit its smoking by juveniles or by anyone on premises to which the public ordinarily has access, Whereas some Groups have proposed that its use as a sacrament for religious purposes ought to be sanctioned, Whereas there is a body of scientific opinion which attests to its medicinal qualities and clinical value, Whereas serious questions have been raised as to its impact on health, on patterns of social behaviour, its implications for the economy and possible effects relating to crime and security, Whereas there are international treaties, conventions and regulations to which Jamaica subscribes that must be respected, In consideration thereof a National Commission is hereby established, with the following of Reference: (i) To receive submissions or memoranda, hear testimony, evaluate research and studies, engage in dialogue with relevant interest Groups, and undertake wide public consultations with the aim of guiding a national approach. (ii) To indicate what changes, if any, are required to existing Laws or entail new legislation, taking account of the social, cultural, economic and international factors. (iii) To recommend the diplomatic initiatives, security considerations, educational process and programme of public information which will need to be undertaken in light of whatever changes may be proposed. (iv) To consider and report on any other matter sufficiently relating to the foregoing. (v) To make such interim reports as it may deem fit and a final Report within a period of nine months from the first sitting.
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