KINGSTON, Jamaica Jamaica is considering the legalization of marijuana, a drug revered by members of the island's large Rastafarian population who say smoking it is part of their religion.
A seven-member government commission has been researching possible changes to the Caribbean nation's anti-drug laws, which some police complain are clogging courts and jails with marijuana-related cases, a government official said Friday.
"We have discussed it, and we are preparing a report to present to the prime minister," said Deputy Prime Minister Kenneth Baugh.
In 2003, a government commission recommended legalizing marijuana in small amounts for personal use. But lawmakers never acted, saying legalization might entail loss of their country's U.S. anti-drug certification. Countries that lose it face economic sanctions.
A U.S. State Department report Friday said that Jamaica is the largest producer of marijuana in the Caribbean and a major hub for drugs bound for the United States.
Members of the Rastafarian movement, which emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s out of anger over the oppression of blacks, have long lobbied for the legalization of the drug that they say brings them closer to the divine.
There are an estimated 700,000 Rastafarians in the world, most of them among Jamaica's 2.6 million people
Caramel_Delite said
22:31 03/12 2008
WOW IF DEM LEGALIZE DAT A MI AGO MOVE DOWN DERE.. YES DEM NEED FI FIGHT FI IT
bLaCkBeatZ said
22:34 03/12 2008
legalize it!
fyahhh said
22:35 03/12 2008
dey need to do it here in the us as well.... but then again u know if dey do it wont b the same..... the government will some how change it to be like a newport
princekris said
22:36 03/12 2008
lol wah unnu seh herbal healing fa di nation
shardo said
22:38 03/12 2008
if it get legalize man..... mi ago go bruk
Mekhilla said
02:19 03/13 2008
Crazypickney said
19:32 03/13 2008
lol, them nah legalise it, dont even know why dem stir it up back
Krazily Insane said
14:09 03/22 2008
lol @ Caramel..sound like u a real weed head...weed baby...lol
-- Edited by postinor at 15:09, 2008-03-22
sting said
14:13 03/22 2008
when diss legalize them soon have the wedd inna di flag, man a smoke weed fi lunch weeed anthem
b*m**oclaat that ago maddd
uno legalize it
-- Edited by postinor at 15:09, 2008-03-22