BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MARIJUANA, a substance which is illegal to traffic, use and cultivate within the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis, could actually stimulate the Federation’s economy and boost its revenue by millions of dollars per year.
This is the view of historian and social commentator Washington ‘Washie’ Archibald who, in recent times, has revived the debate of whether or not marijuana use and cultivation should be decriminalised.
A couple of months ago, SKNVibes published an article headlined “Washie calls for legalisation of marijuana” in which Archibald’s views on the decriminalisation of marijuana were explored and it was promised that other similar articles outlining the various advantages, which he believes this action would have, would have been published.
This is the second in the series and as explained by an ardent Archibald – the economic benefits.
In his usual thought-provoking style, Archibald suggested that “God gave the poor man marijuana so he could prosper from its traffic” and, because of its ease of cultivation, it is the perfect money-making commodity.
Million-dollar benefits
With our soil perfectly constituted, and with minimal capital investment necessary, Archibald expressed that the legalisation of marijuana would enable mass cultivation of the plant.
“In the Caribbean it grows wild, it grows in the bush, it grows in the mountain and it is the poor man’s cultivation, in that it does not take a lot of money, it does not take any cultivation and hardly takes fertilizers to enable it to grow…
“If marijuana was legalised and produced on a large scale, our economy can benefit from $1M per year from this product because each acre of land is capable of producing a net profit of $1M per year. This would be part of our national income and I believe this would help to make St. Kitts and Nevis a prosperous place.”
Marijuana cultivation, possession and use is illegal in many countries the world over. However, Archibald is of the strong belief that once the Federation is successful in establishing trade relation with “marijuana-tolerant” countries, the marijuana industry within the nation would more than thrive.
“We need to find trade relations with countries which tend to be friendly with or tolerant to the use of marijuana like the Dutch and the French and the Spanish. In these countries they allow the use of marijuana. There are restrictions – of course – on its use but it can only be used in cafes etc. We have been getting goods from different countries for many years. I feel we can explore the option of increasing the trade scope between us and some of these countries to include marijuana.”
Tourism booster
In addition to patronising the Caribbean islands for their sun, sea and sand, Archibald suggested that often times tourists visit the islands to enjoy the use of marijuana without the unwanted hassle.
“People from rich countries visit our poor country for the curiosity of seeing what is in a poor country in the Caribbean that they can enjoy that they can take back with them to their rich countries. I believe that one of the things that they come and they enjoy is the use of marijuana. They are able to use the marijuana without too much molestation, whereas in the United States – for whatever reason – marijuana is still illegal and although it is still illegal in the Caribbean, the tourists can come to St. Kitts and enjoy a clandestine puff of marijuana, enjoy the sense of using it before they return to their countries.
“The marijuana offers itself as a good local commodity - inexpensive to purchase – but for which the tourist would be happy to have while they are spending their vacation in the Caribbean.”
If the cultivation and sale of cultivation were decriminalised – Archibald opines – it would serve as a recreational attraction to tourists and would most likely result in an increase of tourist arrivals.
Decreased unemployment
Archibald expressed to this publication that industrialisation provides jobs and because the Caribbean is not industrialised there are troubling rates of unemployment.
Relative to St. Kitts-Nevis – however – the decriminalisation of the cultivation of marijuana would lend itself to job creation, effectively providing gainful employment for many young men across the country.
Some view the notion of legalisation of marijuana as a hard pill to swallow but Archibald suggested that if one would approach the issue having abandoned ones’ myopic, one might understand and even agree with his opinions.
The educator said the cultivation of marijuana should have never been illegalised in the first instance and described as “unfortunate” that “the authorities allow themselves to be blinded by external dictates which tell them that in our country we should avoid and forego the tremendous economic possibilities of this item which can be a very profitable adjunct to our tourism product”.
