Easing ganja penalties not on priority list - Harmon
While the Alliance for Change (AFC), a major party in the ruling coalition, APNU+AFC, supports a bill that would see the legalisation of marijuana in small portions, government yesterday said the Bill was not on its priority list.
“This is not a huge priority for the government at this point and time because we are still fighting drugs in Guyana,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon said yesterday, following questions from a Den Amstel resident, at an outreach he held in the Region 3 community.
Harmon explained that marijuana was still on the UN list of narcotic drugs and that Guyana has a bad global reputation of being a transshipment point for narcotics.
He said that the country has to work holistically to change its global image before seeking to soften penalties on the drug.
“We are still identified by many countries as a transition point for narcotic drugs. Therefore we have to ensure that the way the world sees us is not as a narcotic state and we have to be very careful about how we are branded,” the Minister of State asserted.
He called on the citizenry to get educated on the topic and research countries which have had their laws on marijuana repealed, and then lobby for their cause.
“It is part of the UN description of narcotic drugs. It is still there and will require a bill in the National Assembly to change that. Therefore, I have said to people who have been advocating it to get some advice on how the law has been in countries where it has been changed and get that before the National Assembly,” Harmon said.
Under Guyana’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, possession of over 15 grammes of cannabis attracts a charge of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking and any person summarily convicted of that offence is liable to a sentence of at least three years but no more than five years in prison and a fine of at least $30,000 or the equivalent of three times the street value of the drug.
APNU+AFC MP Michael Carrington had proposed an amendment to that law since last year. It has been listed under private members’ business on the Parliament Order Paper since 2015 and seeks to soften penalties for possession of marijuana for personal use.
The APNU+AFC parliamentarian’s proposed amendment followed public outcry over the sentencing in 2015 of football coach Vibert Butts to three years imprisonment for possession of 46 grammes of cannabis. Butts had had said that it was for his private use
At the end of the same year, members of the Rastafarian community staged a demonstration outside the Attorney General’s office to protest against the “unjust laws” regarding the possession of marijuana, which they want decriminalized. They were subsequently invited to and held a meeting with AG Basil Williams, who had told them that the issue would be raised at Cabinet.
Then in January of 2016, the then leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, had argued that the absence of a clear sentencing policy is a problem. When asked for his views on the calls, including by the Rastafarian community, for repeal of the law governing the possession of cannabis, Ramjattan had stated that all the laws, and especially the penalties, need to be reviewed.
A clear sentencing policy, he had further said, needed to be worked out by the Chancellor and other members of the judiciary. An example, he said, would be to limit the penalty to a one-year maximum sentence.
He added that public opprobrium over the issue was due to the absence of clear sentencing guidelines.
According to Ramjattan, magistrates and judges need to be conscious of public opinion and it is also important that the circumstances of a case be understood. He had said too that the entire debate was more of a sentencing matter than a need for the legislature to change the law.
Ramjattan had stressed that while he could not speak for the APNU, the AFC supported the amendment. “I can’t say, but I can say for the AFC members it’s fully supported. I think you can direct your question to the APNU members,” he had told reporters when asked.
“We support Michael Carrington’s amendment,” the minister said.
He had also added that while the amendment will come up soon, he could not say when, but it would need to have cabinet approval.