Rastas should educate youth on drug use

Prominent youth activist Roger Husbands is concerned that providing for Rastafarians to be able to legally use cannabis for sacramental purposes could send the wrong message.

And he is urging the Rastafarian community to play a role in educating the youth that using cannabis for religious beliefs was not an excuse to abuse the drug.

His comments came in light of the announcement by Attorney General Dale Marshall on Tuesday during the debate in the House of Assembly on the Medical Cannabis Industry Bill, 2019, that Government was preparing draft legislation to take to Parliament which was aimed at permitting members of the community to freely use the drug as part of their religion.

However, an unimpressed Husbands told Barbados TODAY that he needs to know how the move would be policed, particularly to prevent young people from abusing it.

He feared that once such legislation was passed some young people could see it as an excuse to use the drug even if they were not a member of the faith.

“If it does pass, what is the Rastafarian community going to do to alert the young people of Barbados who are on the block smoking callously that this is not for that type of purpose and that it is strictly for ceremonial and religious purposes?

“Rastas have high respect in Barbados among the young population. The Rastafarian community needs to play their part in helping us to educate the young people against excessive smoking and the addiction,” he said.

“Say something to those young people who feel that they should smoke because they are angry or frustrated and they use it to calm themselves down, or young people that out there smoking because they have issues at home,” Husbands added.

The founder and director of the Drug Education and Counselling Services who works primarily with the youth said that while he was in agreement with Government’s move to create a thriving medical cannabis industry, he believed that allowing it to be used for sacramental purposes was sending the wrong message to the youth.

According to Husbands, society is already finding it difficult to stop young people from engaging in social ills including crime and violence and he is calling on authorities to first tackle those issues.

“We need to set ourselves in order before we move on to other things. I feel as though we should be using our time, our resources and energy on other things. Things like the murder rate, we need to get a hold of that. Let people start to function without the drugs and you will see more young people more alert in class,” he said. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb