Rastas ‘wary’ of Gov’t help in medicinal marijuana

he majority of Rastafarians are in the dark about the government’s plan to finance a medicinal marijuana project with the group, President of the Afrikan Heritage Foundation, Paul Ras Simba Rock, has said.

“Ninety-five to 99 per cent of Rastafarians are hearing about this Rastafari cooperative for the first time when the minister talked about it in Parliament…. It really has nothing to do with the wider Rastafari community and it is just smoke and mirrors,” he said on Thursday.

During debate on the Estimates of Expenditure and Revenue for 2024-2025 on Wednesday, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir disclosed that at several meetings with members of the Rastafarian community, participants asked the government to finance the entire operation pointing out that they have been punished in the past. He said this led to the creation of a plan “to establish a value chain operation that allows them to do cultivation, allows for processing to take place . . . and allows for a cooperative to be established, so that if the government participates, then the participation is based on the numbers”.

The minister added that the model would see the government leave the business arrangement after two or three years, just as it plans to leave the sugar industry.

However, Rock contends it was likely that a small group of persons may be involved in the proposal but he insisted it would not benefit the entire community which has been lobbying for the introduction of legislation that would give Rastafarians the right to use marijuana in line with their religious beliefs.

“It does nothing for the wider Rastafarian community – just like the Sacramental [Cannabis] Act which does not allocate our homes as a place of worship. What you’re doing is you’re having a few Rastas, probably party faithfuls… [that] are going to get an opportunity to be in the industry, and unlike Antigua and other Caribbean islands where the general public has been given access to the plant and the wider Rastafarian community have been given access to the plant, that is not being done here. What is being done here is that a few Rastas have come together to form a little corporation among themselves and the government is going to help them.”

Rock remains adamant that the best way to meet the needs of the Rastafarian community is to grant them their right to use marijuana for religious purposes.

He disclosed that he is preparing to return to court with seven others for hearings in the more than three-year-old constitutional case challenging the Sacramental Cannabis Act. The legislation makes provisions for Rastafarians to grow marijuana “sufficient for their use” in the precincts of their places of worship but stipulates they must seek an exempt permit if they wish to use the sacrament at any religious event away from the temple.

Rock said he has received a pre-trial hearing date in May and the court will hear the case on June 11 and 12.

Rastas will vigorously defend their interest, he said, contending that the government’s attempts to distinguish recreational, medicinal and sacramental cannabis are flawed.

“People use cannabis recreationally to relax, which we know as stress relief. You could drink chamomile tea – there are a number of things you do that in itself is medicinal because stress in itself is a number one killer and there are drugs on the market, [and] pharmaceuticals to help with stress.

“So when people talk about recreation, they just think about going out and partying. But when a man comes home or a woman comes home from a long day of work or is being stressed by whatever situation they’re in and they decide to drink a cup of cannabis tea to relax and get a good night’s sleep, that is medicinal, that is not recreational,” Rock insisted.

(SD)