FREE UP THE WEED :: Political Freebie For Pnp;

Jamaica will this year join a vir­tu­al tidal wave of coun­tries across the globe in decrim­i­nal­iz­ing gan­ja, fore­run­ner to the estab­lish­ment of a med­i­c­i­nal mar­i­jua­na indus­try esti­mat­ed to be worth bil­lions of dollars.http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Ganja-green-light-this-year

Phillip Paulwell min­is­ter of sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, ener­gy and mining.

Paulwell, who is min­is­ter of sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, ener­gy and min­ing, told mem­bers of the task-force at a meet­ing last Thursday that “gan­ja will be decrim­i­nal­ized in Jamaica this year and stressed that Jamaica can­not be allowed to be left behind on the issue”. In my esti­ma­tion there is noth­ing wrong with what Paulwell had to say regard­ing not being left behind in the race to decrim­i­nal­ize. My con­cern has to do with what effect this will have on the elec­toral process? I believe if this issue was placed on the bal­lot it would pass with fly­ing col­ors. Most large coun­tries which are engaged in eas­ing Cannabis restric­tions, are doing so behind seri­ous research and prepa­ra­tion. This in con­junc­tion with much greater infra­struc­tur­al sup­port to deal with any neg­a­tive fall-outs to emanate from legalization.

This is a huge polit­i­cal free­bie for the rul­ing People’s National Party. This issue will invari­ably pass muster with Jamaicans liv­ing at home and abroad. If not han­dled cor­rect­ly this could cement the Country into a one par­ty state for a long time to come. It is impos­si­ble for me to sec­ond guess the motives of Paulwell and the PNP . Yet it is dif­fi­cult to imag­ine that they could not wait and have the motion placed on the bal­lot in the next General Elections Constitutionally due with­in 2 years. That would give the issue much legit­i­ma­cy when decid­ed by the peo­ple. Of course the PNP, not to pass up a polit­i­cal oppor­tu­ni­ty, will run with this issue all the way to the next polls. This will be the cov­er against a crum­bling econ­o­my, cor­rup­tion and graft, sky­rock­et­ing crime sta­tis­tics, and an ever increas­ing amount of Jamaicans slid­ing below the pover­ty line. In the end this will not mat­ter Jamaicans can all com­fort them­selves by get­ting high. Free up the weed.