WESTERN BUREAU:

Chairman of the Westmoreland Hemp and Ganja Farmers' Association (WHGFA), Ras Iyah-V, says the organisation has been attracting widespread positive responses from local and international pro-ganja supporters since the organisation was launched one month ago.

"The feedback has been great - great media-wise and great in terms of the responses coming from not just the Rastafari community, but other people," Iyah-V told Western Focus in an interview on Wednesday. "We haven't got any governmental feedback, and that is part of the Jamaican people's overall concern. Everybody I have spoken to says they like the move because the Government is taking too long (to legalise) and we have the best herb here.

The Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force (CCMRT) is hoping that the Government will move swiftly to make amendments to the ganja laws, as it launched the Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston on the weekend.

Delano Seiveright, member of the CCMRT, explained to The Gleaner that the association aimed to represent the interests of various stakeholders and to lobby the Government for a properly regulated cannabis industry.

"We will be focused on the production process and the developments surrounding ganja. We are hopeful there will be changes in the law this year that will essentially allow persons to begin that process," he said.

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:While not objecting to the ongoing bid to legalise ganja in Jamaica, some key stakeholders in Westmoreland say the process has to be properly managed to protect the most vulnerable.

"I think it (legalisation) is going to happen ultimately. But in the process, I think, as a nation, we have to protect the most vulnerable of our society," said the Reverend Carlton Wilson, chairman of the Westmoreland Ministers Fraternal, while speaking at a recent Gleaner 'State of the Capital' Editors' Forum in Savanna-la-Mar.

 Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter

Head of the Morris Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC), Hazel Wright-O'Connor, believes young persons can create business ventures using medical marijuana, provided the plant is legalised.

The MEC is an outreach unit of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU). The centre's primary focus is to provide business-development services for micro, small and medium-size enterprises.

Wright-O'Connor said students from the university's chemistry, biology and biochemistry departments were doing "wonderful things", including the creation of preservatives using gel, which eliminates the need for refrigeration.

Ian Boyne

We are so intoxicated about the prospects of escaping our perennial poverty through the booming US$140-billion global ganja business that we couldn't care less about any scientific evidence which might exist about its potential harm. Ganja market and investment enthusiasts - not to mention Rastafarians like Michael Lorne - are so high over decriminalisation that they are impatient of discussion of any negative effect of ganja smoking.

Derrick Aarons GUEST COLUMNIST

The strong push to decriminalise ganja in Jamaica for medicinal use or scientific purposes has accelerated recently and is said to be on the parliamentary agenda for the upcoming legislative year. Many have trumpeted potential benefits of this matter as including gains in human rights, tourism, medicinal research, taxation, agricultural and broad economic benefits.

Specifically, there has been much discussion regarding a possible medicinal marijuana industry that could bring potentially great economic benefits to Jamaica. However, not much, if any discussion, has occurred on the burdens or risks that come with decriminalising ganja.

KINGSTON, Jamaica:

The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, says the plan by the Jamaican Government to decriminalise marijuana by year end is long overdue.

Decriminalisation would result in the abolition of criminal penalties and would require appropriate amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives, Phillip Paulwell, yesterday confirmed that action would be taken this year in keeping with parliamentary approval.

Spokesperson on Justice, Alexander Williams, says the decision is a step in the right direction and the Opposition is looking forward to the parliamentary debate on the matter.

He says focus should now be placed on the full legalisation of marijuana for medical purposes.

Western Bureau:

Renowned Rastafarian elder Ras Iyah V, who serves on the Rastafari Millennium Council and is chairman of the Rastafari Coral Gardens Committee, says he will be spearheading the formation of a Westmoreland Ganja Farmers' Association, which is separate from the proposed national body.

"I see no guarantee that the interest of those of us who have borne the brunt of the victimisation - even prison sentences for ganja - will be represented by the national body," he said.

In an open letter to then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, which was published in The Gleaner on January 15, 2006; Ras Iyah V, who was instrumental in the 1996 Ganja March in Kingston, made an impassioned plea for the decriminalisation of ganja.

Steve Lyston, Contributor

Ezekiel 34: 29 says: And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen anymore.

Without a doubt, God created plants, herbs and vegetation for the healing of the nation and this is something I have always advocated. Some even believe that Revelation 22: 1-2 is making reference to marijuana and that it carries 12 benefits to heal the nation. However, if there are those who want to argue on that basis, they have to be very careful that it won't open a can of worms that they can't shut.

Delano Seiveright, Guest Columnist

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the Jamaica Stock Exchange's 2014 Capital Markets Conference in Kingston on investment opportunities from legalising ganja.

The last several days and weeks have seen a literal cascade of positive developments on the issue, so much so that even United States President Barack Obama stated publicly that ganja is no more dangerous than alcohol, pointed to the unfair state of affairs at the criminal-justice level, and noted that the legalisation in Colorado and Washington was "important" because it represented the decriminalisation of a commonly used substance.