Eureka! The CARICOM boss discovers Guyana is an illogical land

Jul 04, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The CARICOM Commission on marijuana has released its report. In presenting it, this is what the Secretary-General, of CARICOM, Irwin La Rocque had to say, “One thing that I read in the report that stands out so much is that there are in some member states where the penalty for a small amount of marijuana is sometimes more than for some of the other more heinous crimes that are being committed. Now, how can that be? It just defies logic.”
The only CARICOM country that jails its citizens found guilty for the mere possession of a smoking utensil is Guyana. Guyana is the only country that jails for three years, (sometimes four) those found guilty of seven grams of marijuana. If it is on the books in other CARICOM countries, then they do not jail people for seven grams of ganja.
You hardly get three years jail for seven grams of cocaine anywhere in the western hemisphere much less seven grams of ganja. My friends from the Caribbean tell me no policeman would arrest anyone smoking ganja in a tourist hotel.
La Rocque is one of the top diplomats in the entire CARICOM jurisdiction; therefore, it is expected that he would not point in the direction of any member-state but you have to be a jackass not to know that the observation takes in Guyana where hundreds have been incarcerated for possession of a smoking utensil and small amounts of the plant stems. Any human on Planet Earth that doesn’t understand that context is the guide to human action is a jackass. And such donkeys should not be in power in any country.
In the context of changing zeitgeists, many of the things that were criminally defined, that were frowned upon, that cost people to be ostracized, that were seen as usual, are now, centuries after, acceptable as normal values. Homosexuality, gender equality, protection of animals and racial equality were things you could not have argued in favour of without being laughed at 100 years ago. The first Black person to receive an Academy Award was Hattie McDaniels for best supporting actress in “Gone With The Wind” in 1939.
It was accepted in American society that African-Americans were not equal to Whites and she was not allowed to go on stage to collect her prize. Black entertainers in the US as late as the sixties could not use the same entrance as Whites.
Today, people in many countries can lose their job if they make an anti-gay or anti-Black remark. In Canada and the US, the Indigenous people that were so brutalized have their own territories that outsiders have to apply for permission to enter.
In the context of 21st century, Victorian values and 19th century norms have all gone. I digressed into this discussion of context to explain the prevailing situation at the time the Hoyte Government brought in the anti-drug legislation with draconian penalties. Two circumstances were at work –one internal, the other external. In Guyana, cocaine trafficking had entered Guyanese society. Coupled with that, there were reports of marijuana smoking taking place in schools.
The external factor was the American attitude. President Hoyte had embarked on a new economic direction and needed the support of the Americans. In was in this context pressure was brought to bear on him to pass formidable anti-drug legislation.
It was doubtful that Hoyte would have wanted to displease the Americans by complaining of the harshness of the penalties. At the time, Guyana was emerging as a serious port of transshipment of cocaine to the US.
That was more than thirty years ago. The greatest and most ironic example of changing times is the US penalty structure. Even if you are a foreigner, it is doubtful you would get three years from an American judge for three grams of cocaine much less jail time for possession of a smoking utensil.
Some may argue that the most coruscating example is not the penalty system but the changing nature of the law itself in the US in relation to ganja. In many States in the US federal system, marijuana is legal. Canada last week decriminalized it.
Let us move away from the marijuana topic and end with La Rocque’s statement about the illogical situation where you get three years for small amount of ganja but some horrible crimes carry the same penalty. Is this the only area of life in Guyana that is illogical? Mr. La Rocque is a diplomat so he cannot speak on life in this illogical wasteland named Guyana. But those areas are literally countless, some of which make you wonder why Guyana is still surviving as a country.

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