Saint Lucia’s Cannabis Commission on Tuesday hosted the first of six public consultation meetings at the Castries City Hall. Formed in August, the commission is tasked with submitting by the end of the year a report to the government that will provide advice on a legislative and regulatory framework for cannabis. If the number of attendees at Tuesday’s event was any barometer, then it was on a discouraging note that the public consultation kicked off. Only about 20 individuals cared enough to show up.
Their views, questions and concerns were directed to the head table, where sat commission chairman Michael Gordon QC, Dr. Stephen King, Andre de Caires, Paul Francis and Joel Henry. One member of the audience was concerned about protecting farmers who he confessed had for years been growing marijuana. Michael Gordon offered an opinion: “I think it would be nothing less than tragic if the regulatory framework did not acknowledge and protect small farmers and the present producers of marijuana.” He neglected to mention it was still illegal to cultivate marijuana.
Cannabis Movement Chairman Andre de Caires chimed in: “The Rastafarian community, most of all, is the one that took all the risks, was discriminated against in the workplace, brutalized, unfairly jailed and sometimes murdered. We want to see reparatory justice being administered to this community in particular, so they would be first in line to get licenses to grow and sell.”
Dr. Stephen King said: “Very often new fads arrive and everybody says moringa will cure everything, cannabis will cure everything. Cannabis definitely has medical use but it is not the cure all.” If and when the island adopts a regulatory regime, King advised that a massive health education programme be adopted and an age restriction decided.
Another audience member asked if there was any assurance that the commission’s final report, whenever submitted, would cause government to make the necessary changes. To his obvious disappointment, he was informed that there was no way to guarantee all of the recommendations submitted will be accepted. Dr. King added: “These elected officials, you know what they respond to? It’s ti-kwa-votes. So, if the general public wants something and we the commission articulate clearly what the public wants, as well as what the science and the evidence shows, I think we’ll have a much better argument.”
Aaron Alexander the chairman of The Iyanola Council for the Advancement of Rastafari, said he was hopeful the government will act on the recommendations made. He recalled that politicians had “ganged up against the peoples’ wishes” and shelved the Suzie d’Auvergne report on Constitutional reform.
The STAR later spoke with Chairman Michael Gordon. The audience sparsity had not escaped him. “I think the meeting started slowly but it got more animated. We need to publicize the next town hall meeting more widely,” he said. Andre de Caires echoed his sentiments. He said there hadn’t been sufficient media publicity.
Nonetheless, de Caires welcomed the input from those who attended. “There were very valuable contributions. 100% of the people said cannabis should be legalised,” he said. “Going forward I would like to see a little more advertising of these meetings so we get over this hump, get the report in, and then it’s up to the politicians.”
