ONLY A MATTER OF TIME

Jun 28, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is establishing an office in Guyana. The decision which emerged as a result of cooperation between the Guyana government and the US administration will see the DEA office being established within the fort-like walls of the US embassy in Guyana.
This represents for the Donald Ramotar administration a significant political development especially coming at a time when the United States is reporting that the quantity of drugs shipped from the Caribbean to its country has increased more than three times between 2011 and 2013.
At least this is what a recent report in the Trinidad Guardian had pointed out. In that article, three major routes for the transshipment of illicit drugs were identified.
It would surprise many of the alarmists in Guyana who like to paint Guyana as a narco-state that Guyana is not amongst the three major routes identified. The first route is from Jamaica; the second is from the Dominican Republic, and the third from the Eastern Caribbean.
Against this background of a massive increase in the transshipment of narcotics from the Caribbean, Guyana was able to take advantage of the growing attention to the Caribbean by US drug enforcement agencies. Guyana was able to capitalize on this focus and press home the need to have a DEA presence in Guyana. Previously the DEA operations that covered Guyana were based in Suriname and Trinidad. Guyana now has its own DEA office and this is a most welcome development and one that allows for greater inroads to be made into the fight against narcotics.
The local drug enforcement agencies will now have a quicker and perhaps more direct interface with their international colleagues. This will facilitate better sharing of information and intelligence. It will also ratchet up cooperation in other areas of drug interdictions. For the US of course, they will now be in a better position to assess the intelligence about drug dealings in Guyana. Both sides therefore have much to gain.
Hopefully, the establishment of the DEA office would allow for some transfer of knowledge. The US has significant capabilities in the drug fight. The DEA presence in Guyana, while expected to be mainly cocooned behind the walls of the Embassy, can provide critical assistance to local law enforcement arms.
The establishment of the local DEA office comes also at interesting time. There is at the moment a strong movement in both the United States and in sections of the Caribbean demanding the legalization of marijuana. Within the United States, there are States which have already moved in the direction of legalizing the medical uses of marijuana.
In the Caribbean, there are increasing calls for consideration to be given to decriminalizing the uses of marijuana. In Jamaica, the issue is under consideration. Judging from reports that country may as early as this year decriminalize the possession of small quantities of marijuana. St Vincent may also go down that route.
In Latin America, Uruguay has already decriminalized the use of small amounts of marijuana. But it has been done in a way in which the whole process is tightly controlled by the government. This is being done so as to ensure that the drug dealers do not profit from the legalization. It would be useful to study how that process evolves.
In Guyana, there is strident objection within the government to any moves to decriminalize marijuana. The PPPC government is fearful that with weak law enforcement, any such legalization could have dire consequences. They are also worried about the signals that such a decriminalization would give to the underworld.  Powerful economic interests are equally worried about the economic impact of any legalization on their own businesses.
The government of Guyana would eventually, however, have to face certain realities. One of these is the mounting number of young people who are being locked away for possession and trafficking in marijuana. The jails are overflowing with young drug offenders.
As such, greater pressures are likely to be placed on the Donald Ramotar administration to relax its objections to the decriminalization of marijuana, especially now that the medical uses marijuana is being legalized in many parts of the world.
A great many people have a strong dislike in Guyana for former President Janet Jagan. But she was the one, who made the first brave step in reforming our marijuana laws. She amended the law to state that while it is still illegal to be in possession of marijuana, it is no longer mandatory for the courts to impose a custodial sentence. They could opt for a non- custodial sentence. She saw the problem that was being created in our jails and she tried to relax sentencing law without legalizing the possession of marijuana.
The Peeper had always contended that so long as the powerful multinationals in the United States found a way to economically benefit from marijuana, it would eventually be decriminalized. And it does seem as if the medicinal uses of weed are now seen as a big market in the US and in other parts of the world. Once this continues to happen it will only be a matter of time before marijuana is legalized throughout the world, only a matter of time.

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