Removal of marijuana from list hailed as a step in the right direction

The Barbadian Rastafari community and the founder of a leading local drug addiction counselling service have given the thumbs up to the removal of cannabis from the list of the world’s most dangerous drugs.

But the head of this country’s anti-doping agency is warning all concerned to tread carefully in seeking to benefit from this latest development.

Yesterday, a United Nations commission voted to remove cannabis for medicinal purposes from a category of the world’s most dangerous drugs, a highly-anticipated and long-delayed decision that could clear the way for an expansion of marijuana research and medical use.

The vote by the Commission for Narcotic Drugs, which is based in Vienna and includes 53 member states, considered a series of recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on reclassifying cannabis and its derivatives.

But attention centered on a key recommendation to remove cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs –  where it was listed alongside dangerous and highly-addictive opioids like heroin.

Experts say that the vote will have no immediate impact on loosening international controls because governments will still have jurisdiction over how to classify cannabis. But many countries look to global conventions for guidance and United Nations recognition is a symbolic win for advocates of drug policy change who say that international law is out of date.

However, while family physician and chairman of the National Anti-Doping Commission in sports medicine Dr Adrian Lorde acknowledges the removal is consistent with the global trend towards legalization of cannabis, he has issued a caution.

“I hope it doesn’t send the wrong message to persons, because one can start with marijuana and then go onto harder drugs.  You have to be careful that people don’t get the wrong impression that marijuana is not dangerous at all. We have seen several people who have suffered from the effects of marijuana use. So it is not for everybody in all amounts either,” Dr Lorde told Barbados TODAY this afternoon.

He has also put all sports men and women in Barbados on notice about the use of marijuana although it is now no longer classified as one of the most dangerous drugs in the medical sphere.

“From a sports perspective, you still need to be careful with the use of marijuana in competition, because it is still prohibited and it is still on the list of prohibited substances and that is not changing, at least for the next year,” the National Anti-Doping Commission chairman warned.

Founder of the Centre for Counselling Addiction Support Alternatives (CASA), Orlando Jones welcomed the declassification of cannabis.

“I think it needed to be removed from that category as one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. It was compared with heroin and cocaine and that type of stuff.  I don’t think it really warrants that kind of categorisation. So I do agree that it should be declassified in that sense,” said Jones, whose organisation provides crisis intervention community-based prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services to people experiencing substance abuse and related problems.

The retired mental health nurse reserved special praise for the United Nations for taking the bold step to separate cannabis from the other more highly-addictive drugs.

“It really is not as dangerous as those other drugs…the morphine, the heroin, the cocaine and those others. So the United Nations, in my view, has done the right thing,” he declared.

“I think it is about 59 years that marijuana has had this classification. And despite all the challenges we have had with it…there are still some challenges with the use of marijuana. The challenges have never been to the extent that you will get with the heroin and the morphine and the cocaine…the kind of addiction that those drugs have led to people to have to be injected. Lots of people died in the US because of heroin addiction and stuff like that. Marijuana was never really like that,” contended the drug counsellor.

The local Rastafari organisation which recently filed a constitutional motion in the High Court against the Attorney General, challenging the severity of the existing Prohibition Drugs Act, this afternoon conditionally welcomed the declassification of cannabis for medical purposes.

Founder and president of the African Heritage Foundation (AHF) Paul Simba Rock told Barbados TODAY while the move is not ideal, it should “open a space for more conversations for medical use”.

“The prohibition of this sacred plant has been lifted and would open more conversations. I have a case in court…a constitutional motion against the AG challenging the severity of the Prohibition Drug Act. That may be given more weight in my case if the UN’s position is taken into consideration by the Barbados Government,” Rock suggested.

He is concerned that while cannabis has been removed as one of the most dangerous drugs in the world from a medical perspective, Barbados still needs to address the human rights issue regarding legalisation or decriminalisation of the substance.

Rock’s counterpart from the Ichirouganaim Council for the Advancement of Rastafari (ICAR) Asheba Trotman was ecstatic at news that cannabis had been declassified for health reasons.

“It is a great move. It has been long overdue. It will also provide the time for Barbados to Review its Dangerous Drugs Act and remove it from the schedule for a law which is old and outdated since 1961,” Trotman, who is chairperson of the ICAR stated.

She told Barbados TODAY it should also allow the Government to have time and space to look at the global convention on drugs to also address this law.

The Rastafarian leader noted that Barbados and other countries rely on that UN Convention to react to such matters as drugs.

“This is very, very significant for the Governments of the Caribbean as well, especially taking into consideration the medical marijuana industry,” Trotman said.

“While it is not a total victory for the legalisation of the sacred plant, it is indeed a major leap forward for the use of cannabis, especially for those sick people who will now have it more affordable and more accessible, It is really a long and tardy route, but we are happy about it,” the ICAR spokesperson declared.

Prominent member of ICAR Adonijah also welcomed the decision to declassify the drug for medical purposes but like his colleagues, he expressed some reservations,

“I would say it is a welcomed step…not the whole journey but any means. Any step in that direction is a good step. Much still needs to be done, because really, what we are seeing not only locally, but regionally, is a lot of [… ]steps forward and two steps backward. We need to get serious with the issue and just give people their rights,” said Adonijah.

“If you have come out and said, ‘yes, you have rights’, don’t put stumbling blocks in the way of having these rights realized,” suggested the noted calypsonian. He said he would like to see the legalisation of marijuana extended beyond medicinal purposes and limited sacramental practices.

“It is ridiculous to have one plant and you say it is good for medicine which one would think is a good thing, but still…there is always a ‘but’…what’s the ‘but’ about? There is no ‘but’ If there has already been established for thousands of years that the cannabis plant is a very beneficial plant, come out and let things be as they were in the beginning,” the well known member of the Rastafari community reasoned.

Adonijah suggested that the plant be allowed to return to its natural status.

“There is no need for all these different parts…division into medicinal and sacramental. It is one plant you are talking about and there should be one approach, which is legalize it. We continue seeming to forget that the Caricom Regional Commission on Cannabis, years ago, without any equivocation, recommended total legalisation, not decriminalisation, but legalisation,” he declared.

When contacted head of the state-owned National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) Betty Hunte was not in a position to comment.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)