Cops ‘can issue tickets’ under new cannabis law

The police have the option to issue tickets rather than make arrests for possession of small amounts of cannabis, a senior officer has said, highlighting an apparent effort to ease enforcement for minor possession cases as Barbados navigates a complex and controversial policy terrain.

Superintendent Anthony Warner of The Barbados Police Service’s Criminal Investigation Unit explained a recent amendment to the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act allows officers to give tickets for 14 grammes or less of cannabis, rather than arresting offenders.

“Before, if you got any amount– a stem, a seed, a stalk – the police could have arrested you for the smallest amount of cannabis,” Warner said Thursday at the National Council on Substance Abuse’s ‘Grassroots of Medicinal and Recreational Cannabis’ panel discussion. “What the law does now is tell us to give a different approach on how the police would treat that type of offence.”

The new fixed penalty system does not decriminalise cannabis; possession remains illegal, Superintendent Warner stressed, and those ticketed must pay within 30 days or potentially face criminal charges in court.

The amendments strike a balance between enforcement and leniency, aiming to handle minor cannabis offences in a “fair and proportional” way while maintaining the drug’s illegal status, according to the superintendent.

Warner rejected a “misconception” that law enforcement interprets legislation, insisting police only enforce laws set by the State.

“It probably would be a dangerous thing if you have to leave it to the police to interpret the law because they might do it in their own interest,” he said. 

The senior officer urged collaboration between citizens and police: “The whole country is begging for everybody to speak to law enforcement so that some of the stories that we’re hearing, we might not be hearing.”

While doctors can prescribe medicinal cannabis, Superintendent Warner noted they must follow “stringent legal processes” to obtain required permissions from authorities.

He vowed police will “enforce laws without discretion to maintain integrity and credibility” amid the evolving cannabis regulations.

(NCSA)