Don’t be fooled by ‘harmless’ ganja!

THE EDITOR, Sir:

IAM grateful for the comments of Dr Saphire Longmore regarding the use of ganja, which were published in your edition of November 10, 2018.

Clearly, ganja is not a harmless substance. Unfortunately, many family members can attest to this. They can give first-hand accounts of the impact of the use of ganja on their relatives, particularly young males. According to a November 27, 2005, Gleaner article, mentalhealth experts at The UWI determined that “ganja, alcohol, and hopelessness are contributing to the country’s soaring murder rate”. The question must, therefore, be asked: Is there any link between the use of ganja and other drugs and some of the gruesome murders that we have experienced?

Further, a 1999 informal study done by Professor Archibald McDonald at The UHWI reportedly showed that approximately 50 per cent of trauma cases were associated with the use of ganja. Why are these concerns being ignored while the country pushes ahead with the ganja train? Incidentally, is testing now available locally for assessing whether one is driving under the influence of ganja? The prohibition against its use in public places is being roundly ignored. Is it that inhalation of ganja smoke is less harmful than inhalation of cigarette smoke? Provision was made in the 2015 amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act for monies from the licensing fees to be used to, inter alia, “strengthen the capacity and programmes of the National Council on Drug Abuse, including publiceducation programmes to discourage the use of ganja by persons under the age of 18 years, persons with a mental disorder, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, and to strengthen mental-health institutions and services”.

Is all of this being done? Is this even enough? Aren’t we doing our people a grave disservice by failing to educate and strongly warn of the dangers associated with the use of ganja for nonmedicinal purposes?

Let’s do all the necessary research to utilise ganja for medicinal purposes. We should have been doing that long ago. However, at the same time, we need to strongly warn our people about the dangers of use for non-medicinal purposes. Such a failure could be seen as callous disregard for their welfare, especially since many are of the mistaken view that ganja is a harmless substance.