Last week Krem News reported that a handful of pastors, members of the National Evangelical Association (NEAB) and Roman Catholic priest, John Robinson had gathered at the National Assembly steps to show their disapproval of the Cannabis Control and Licensing Bill, 2022 that was being introduced in the National Assembly by the Minister of New Growth Industries and Home Affairs, Hon. Kareem Musa. The religious leaders had been vociferously in favor of marijuana remaining a wholly prohibited product, when a previous government moved to decriminalize 10 grams of the drug for personal use, in 2017, and now that a government is moving toward freeing up the drug even further, the religious leaders have stepped up their offensive.
The World Health Organization softened its position on marijuana for medicinal use in 2020, moving it from its list of “most dangerous drugs”, but this change has had no influence on pastors in Belize. They might give an ear to medical marijuana, but they don’t want us to grow it. They consider marijuana a deadly drug, and they’re pushing for a referendum, with the hope that the people would vote against legalizing it for recreational use and maybe even turn back the decriminalization of 10 grams. Judging from what is taking place in Mexico, where they are close to legalizing recreational marijuana, and the US, where many states have done so, a referendum in Belize could only achieve a delay of the inevitable.
In the US, it is by way of referenda that recreational use of marijuana is now legal in a number of states in that country. At the fore in lobbying for states to vote on the status of the drug is the US’s “Marijuana Policy Project”, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. which was founded in 1995 with the stated vision to create “a nation where marijuana is legally regulated similarly to alcohol, marijuana education is honest and realistic, and treatment for problem marijuana users is non-coercive and geared toward reducing harm.”
One by one, states in the USA have been decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana for recreational use. BALLOTPEDIA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan online political encyclopedia in the US, states that by mid-2021 eighteen states in the US had already legalized recreational marijuana. Legislators in the US are on the verge of regulating marijuana similarly to the way that alcohol is regulated all across that nation.
In Belize, our government is moving toward alcohol-type regulations to control marijuana, but not without great resistance. Former government minister, Wilfred Elrington, wrote last week in a column in The Reporter titled “Dons, Dealers and Dors” that “the evidence is irrefutable that the legalization of marijuana does much more harm than good to the poor and the powerless in those societies where it has been legalized!” Mr. Elrington did not cite his sources, but it is generally accepted that marginalized persons are more at risk than their better off peers.
The local lobby against legalizing marijuana has opined that if the drug were to be given such status by GOB, it would be interpreted as a blessing and lead to explosive use of it by our nation’s youth. In every aspect of their lives, more has to be done for this group, but on the whole legalizing marijuana is not the great threat to them that many make it out to be. In Colorado, where recreational use of marijuana was legalized in 2012, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said “the proportion of Colorado high school students reporting using marijuana ever in their lifetime remained statistically unchanged between 2005 and 2019.”
Pastor Robinson, in making the Catholic Church’s case against legalization, spoke about a visit he made recently to an area in California, USA. Pastor Robinson said California, “one of the richest places in the world…legalized recreational marijuana back in 2016 [and] it is now unrecognizable, with homeless people living in the streets…many or perhaps most of them are addicted to drugs.” Greg Rosalsky, in a discussion of homelessness in California aired on the highly regarded NPR, said the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Nan Roman, said the root cause of people living in the streets of California is that “housing has gotten way too scarce and expensive.” Rosalsky mentioned poverty, mental illness and chronic drug use as contributors to the problem.
Pastor Robinson said if parents “cannot stand up and say no to this bill, how can we expect our children to say no to drugs?” The Amandala respects the position of the churches and all the advocates who work to deter the use of drugs and alcohol. This newspaper stopped accepting advertisements for cigarettes decades ago, and while it has criticized the state’s ‘roughing up’ of Rastafarians who use the drug in their religious ceremonies, it has never encouraged the smoking of marijuana. However, there are adults who like the drug, and making it illegal has been disastrous.
The determined Mr. Elrington, in his story in The Reporter, said “the dealers, dons, and dors, easily compromise our political and public service elites making it virtually impossible for them to carry out their duties in the best interest of our country.” As observed in the US, prohibiting alcohol led to the corrupting of their political leaders and security forces, and caused mayhem in the streets as gangs fought each other for a share of the illegal gains. A wise man somewhere said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The US, recognizing the folly of prohibiting the drinking of alcohol, made spirituous liquors legal way back in 1933.
Our church leaders couldn’t be called out if they are a little jealous on seeing so many potential members of their flocks who, in desperation to salve mental and physical anguish caused by excruciating poverty and inadequate housing, turn to alcohol and marijuana instead of the Word. It indeed would be great to see the pews crammed with eager souls, but in the world of free will, a special gift from the Almighty, people make choices, and while it is regrettable when we make not-so-wholesome ones, as long as we aren’t directly interfering with our neighbors, our rights should be respected.
Criminalizing weed was a disaster, and decriminalizing 10 grams is just a Band-Aid. Utilizing a referendum to try and delay GOB taking control of the production, distribution and use of the drug wouldn’t help any. What we need to do, as the GOB proceeds to legalize weed, is to watch them every step of the way, to ensure the best for our people, with special emphasis on our children and youth to help them stay away from drugs and alcohol.