Group petitions National Assembly to decriminalise hemp
A petition to change the law which classifies hemp as an illegal substance was presented to the National Assembly last Thursday.
The document, presented to the Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs by the Guyana Hemp Association, was titled “The correction of the conflict of laws between the United Nations and local Guyanese law, specifically the inclusion of industrial hemp in the narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances control act of 1988.”
Jinnah Rahman, Secretary and Press Officer of the Guyana Hemp Association, explained that when the United Nations convention made amendments to distinguish hemp from marijuana, these changes were not adopted in Guyana’s laws.
A call was, therefore, made for the government to “implement the cannabis laws as they were written and Guyana signed and agreed to in the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961….”
The Guyana Hemp Association believes that there is major potential in the farming of industrial hemp locally, and in its petition highlighted how the industry could play an essential role in eradicating poverty, particularly by reducing unemployment among youth.
Rahman, who stated that he considers hemp a miracle plant, related that it has the potential to contribute to the manufacture of more than 100 vital items, including milk. Comparing it to rice, he said that an acre of hemp will yield five times more the returns of an acre of rice and does not require the use of fertilisers or pesticides.
A member of the cannabis family, hemp is usually associated with marijuana, but unlike its counterpart, rather than being utilised for its psychoactive properties (which are significantly lower than in marijuana), it is bred to maximize fibre, seed and/oil.
A few of the over 25,000 products that can be made from hemp include cement, stucco and mortar, paper, twine, canvas, denims, vitamins, cooking oils, shampoo, solvents and lotions.