NCN’s mischief continues but on whose behalf this time?

Dec 30, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
The demonization of a Private Member’s Bill by NCN, which is intended to amend the Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act No. 2 of 1988, so to prevent, especially first time offenders from going to jail, for three to five years for smoking a joint, or being in possession of small amounts of cannabis, for personal use, is uncalled for. The trained propaganda personnel who are still working at NCN were hard at work on Monday 21 of December 2015 on NCN news.
I would like to highlight the subliminal manipulation in the news to kill the bill. NCN showing of persons handling big block of cannabis, cannabis farms, and smoking of cannabis, was intended to give the public the perception that the amendments is intended to legalize cannabis. The amendment does not seek to legalize cannabis. In the current Act, a person who is guilty for smoking a joint of 16 grams of cannabis receives the same jail sentence as a person who is charge and found guilty for possessing a hundred kilograms of cocaine.
Section 4 (i) states.
Any person who has in his possession any narcotic or any substance represented or held out by him to be a narcotic, shall be liable – (a) in respect of any narcotic—
(i) on a summary conviction, to a fine of not less than ten thousand dollars, together with imprisonment for not less than three years nor more than five years ;
(ii) On a conviction on indictment, to a fine of not less than ten thousand dollars or three times the market value of the narcotic, whichever is the greater, together with imprisonment for not less than five years, no more than ten years.
In section 5 the summery conviction for trafficking in narcotic is the same for a person who has in his or her possession small quantity of narcotic such as cannabis for personal use. How could a person who smokes cannabis get the same sentence as a person who was charged for trafficking large quantities?
What section 4 (i) does is force a person to plead not guilty, because if he or she plead guilty for small quantity of cannabis for personal use, the sentence is 3 to 5 years in jail. It also creates a cost of up to $350,000 in lawyer fees. It also forces some parents to try to pay a bribe to officer to prevent they child from going to jail. The state cost for keeping a person in jail for three years estimated at $20,000 a month. That is $720,000 for his or her sentence, for16 grams of cannabis, which worth just about $1000. This does not make sense. When a person is guilty of smoking cannabis, a crime against his or her own self, he or she is sentence to live with criminals, a place where you learn further to commit crime. Cannabis is also sold in the prison system. In my opinion, persons found possessing cannabis, with no evidence that he or she is selling cannabis, should pay a fine and be ordered to do community work in the local government authority area where he or she lives. Jailing a person for smoking, taking them away from family is a harsh penalty.
The 25 years old law needs to be amended and sections of the act need to be enforce such as establishing and funding rehabilitation centers. We as a government need to face this problem of jailing a person for smoking cannabis, head on, debate the Act and have a conscious vote. For 25 years now, the Parliament only had two conscious votes, the Abortion Act and the Casino Act. Allowing members to debate the bills are very important in a Democratic state. I must say that the AFC joined the coalition to remove the previous government, to make Guyana a better place for all Guyanese. As such we need to look at our social problems.
AFC member
(name supplied)

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NCN’s mischief continues but on whose behalf this time?

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