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Medical marijuana, slavery reparations up for discussions at Caricom summit
By Zena Henry
Two items likely to stand out of a packed agenda when Heads of the Caribbean Community meet in St. Vincent next Monday is one dealing with efforts to win payment for slavery and the other is the possibility of medical marijuana being legalized in the Region.
Spokesperson for the Guyana-based secretariat Leonard Robertson, told Kaieteur News yesterday that, “both the items are up for discussions next week.” He said that the issues are both of great concern to the CARICOM leaders. It was also mentioned that human resource development, information and communication technology and the state of the regional economy are also listed for attention during the regional summit.
Leaders will also review a preliminary report on marijuana when they assemble in the Eastern Caribbean Island.
The matter was first raised at the main summit in Trinidad last year with then rotating chairperson; Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar contending that enough research had not been done by governments and experts on the issue and that the secretariat had been ordered to compile a preliminary report for presentation to leaders at next week’s summit.
The Trinidadian PM had stated that, “We were of the view in our preliminary discussions that we’ll need much further research with respect to the medical issues as well as on the legislative and legal issues.”
Several of the regional member states have been debating some form of decriminalization of marijuana use in small amounts and for medicinal purposes but none are known to have taken a decision so far.
St, Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves had however called on CARICOM in 2013 for discussions on medical marijuana. He had written CARICOM’s Chair asking for preliminary talks on the subject. He had also related to debates in Jamaica and other CARICOM countries about the possibilities of medical marijuana as an economic and commercial industry and argued that influential persons, such as Jamaican chemist and cancer researcher, Dr. Henry Lowe, had been speaking in favour of the legitimate usage of marijuana products for a range of medical purposes.
“I think that it is high time that CARICOM address, regionally, this matter in a sensible, focused, non-hysterical manner,” Gonsalves had stated. He charged that research has already proven the drug for a variety of potentially beneficial uses.
CARICOM had also met with British law firm, Leigh, Day& Company over legal representation of Caribbean nations seeking redress from European countries for horrors endured during the 300-year-long slave trade.
Illiteracy and poor health care were identified among six key issues plaguing slavery descendants. Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission Professor Sir Hilary Beckles Pro-vice-chancellor of UWI, had stated that, “the African descended population in the Caribbean today has the highest incidence in the world of chronic diseases such as hypertension and type two diabetes.” He said it was the direct result of their nutritional exposure, endemic inhumane physical and emotional brutalization and other aspects of the stress experience of slavery and post slavery apartheid.
He also said that slavery descendants suffer from psychological trauma, and alluded to cultural deprivation as another issue that needed to be addressed and outlined; that the primary cultural effect of slavery was to break and eradicate African commitment to their culture.
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