BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN a short while, a one-man campaign will be launched across the island of St. Kitts in lobby for the powers that be to decriminalise the cultivation, possession of and use of marijuana.
It will be launched by a man who seems quite passionate about the issue and who has named the criminalisation of marijuana an injustice.
This is the first in a series of articles aimed at highlighting and exploring the views of historian, social commentator and activist George Washington ‘Washie’ Archibald on cannabis, its production, its traffic, its benefit and whether or not its criminalised status within the Federation should be changed.
During his interview with SKNVibes, Archibald opined that the decision made by local lawmakers to make the use, traffic and production of marijuana illegal was done without proper justification.
“The lawmakers in St. Kitts and Nevis who have decided to criminalise marijuana and to impose harsh sentences on its possession and use, do not really have any rationale. They have no rational idea of what the marijuana does to anybody. The reason why they have made it illegal is that they have been following the directions of both the British Government and the United States Government.
“I remember there was a time when – although I believe it may have been illegal – the penalties for the use of it were not harsh. I remember when they made these penalties so harsh that the opposition of the day described the penalties as draconian. So that I don’t believe that our law against the use or possession or trafficking marijuana, cannabis…I don’t think our law is based on scientific evidence, because both the scientific evidence and the natural evidence seem to indicate that marijuana is useful and, like everything else, it must be used in moderation.”
To put it succinctly, Archibald’s belief is that “God gave the poor man marijuana so that he could prosper from its traffic”.
According to his explanation, should the government give serious thought to decriminalising the use, growth and traffic of marijuana, there could be many benefits to be derived by the Federation.
The next article in this series would explore at least one of the benefits which Archibald robustly believes would be the Federation’s reward, should it sanction the growth, traffic and use of cannabis.
