The Coil: Ball your own Spliff in 2015
Click here first for musical accompaniment by “First Born”
Ganja could be one of the issues in the 2015 elections for those voting issues and not race. It seems that the PPP and APNU differ on how to talk about ganja and the criminalisation of ganja growers, sellers and users .
APNU’s Joe Harmon said that APNU would open the debate on legalising ganja. It seemed that Mr Harmon was thinking of the potential voters who are in jail for smoking or selling ganja who can ‘help to build Guyana’. Mr Rohee of the PPP said that the Government/PPP has zero tolerance for ganja. He accused APNU of being immoral by playing ganja politics and that the PPP will keep the status quo and weed will remain illegal and progress will continue with ganja growers, sellers and users fulling up the jails or doing community service depending on the scales which are used to weigh the ganja which is found.
From this Kaieteur News report, it seems that some of the police under Mr Rohee’s watch disagree. One policeman was reportedly hospitalised after reportedly ingesting a mixture of weed, alcohol and other substances given to him by a drug dealer who was fed up with having to give police small amounts of weed even though Mr Rohee has been insisting weed is not good for them.
Mr Rohee also said that APNU wants to get “Rastafarian” votes. It seems that the General Secretary of the PPP is not aware that Ras Leon Saul and Ras Alfred have formed the “Heal the Nation Theocracy Party”. One of their beliefs is “Equality of human rights, justice and legalization of marijuana “. Another of their beliefs is probably that neither Mr Rohee or Mr Harmon’s political parties would heal the nation with weed any time soon. First Born’s Junkie warns people to be careful about the “chalice from the dark” and the words of those who will “treat you like a junkie.”
First Born could be talking about black joints mixed with cocaine. In election season could the message about “balling your own spliff” mean take your destiny into your own hands and not worry about any politician?
The PPP congratulated the recently elected President of Uruguay hoping that President Varquez would “continue with the policies and programmes of his predecessor Jose Mujica aimed at upgrading the quality of life of the Uruguayan people”. One of the policies was the decriminalisation of ganja. Another one was legalisation of gay marriage.
It would make the May 2015 elections a lot of fun if the ganja and gay rights become issues for the vote.
Mr Rohee should realise that Mr Harmon only talked about ‘opening debate’ about ganja. Opening debate does not mean anything. The PPP has opened debate about whether to stop beating children in school since 2006 and teachers beat children and children beat others while the debate remains open. Mr Harmon’s party and Mr Rohee’s party might not be so different after all.
The Palm Tree has not been replaced with the Cannabis Leaf as a party symbol for Mr Harmon’s PNC, and the APNU/AFC coalition have been working on branding and have not released anything further about ganja.
Imagine if in the next few months, APNU/AFC create their own Ganja Commission and come up with a position on what the legalisation would look like before waiting for people to vote/not vote for change. Imagine if the public gets to see how APNU views consultation and participation and those nice things it wants to do when it gets into power so that instead of debating further they move on actions beyond talking.
It is frightening for example that CARICOM is considering ‘economic value’ of legal ganja – scary when one considers the devastating economics of the alcohol industry. Red Thread spoke of the injustice of sentencing in the case of 22 year old Ocia Leung. Neither APNU nor the PPP seem to want to consider the injustice of the implementation of the narcotics laws and speak openly about the failure of the narcotics laws .
Two years, I met two young men Smoking Weed Outside a Rum Shop while doing their work.
The men had talked about how they preferred the high grade weed from jamyard. If APNU or HTNTP legalise ganja , hopefully they do a Burnham and make sure that it is only home grown ganja which is made legal and not imports from Jamaica or China or anywhere else.
There is probably another issue in that the new leaders promise to change/not abuse the powers of the Constitution given to them as the current leaders promised when they were about to be new leaders 22 years ago .
Ganja .. with the promise of debate .. might not be such an issue after all.
(Note : I advocate abstinence from ganja and alcohol. I do not advocate prohibition. I do not advocate legalization which would result in unregulated commercialisation and sales like what has happened with alcohol. I do not believe that people should face convictions and have criminal records for possession of marijuana for personal use or consumption. I also have no intention of voting in the 2015 elections. )
Ganja could be one of the issues in the 2015 elections for those voting issues and not race. It seems that the PPP and APNU differ on how to talk about ganja and the criminalisation of ganja growers, sellers and users .
APNU’s Joe Harmon said that APNU would open the debate on legalising ganja. It seemed that Mr Harmon was thinking of the potential voters who are in jail for smoking or selling ganja who can ‘help to build Guyana’. Mr Rohee of the PPP said that the Government/PPP has zero tolerance for ganja. He accused APNU of being immoral by playing ganja politics and that the PPP will keep the status quo and weed will remain illegal and progress will continue with ganja growers, sellers and users fulling up the jails or doing community service depending on the scales which are used to weigh the ganja which is found.
From this Kaieteur News report, it seems that some of the police under Mr Rohee’s watch disagree. One policeman was reportedly hospitalised after reportedly ingesting a mixture of weed, alcohol and other substances given to him by a drug dealer who was fed up with having to give police small amounts of weed even though Mr Rohee has been insisting weed is not good for them.
Mr Rohee also said that APNU wants to get “Rastafarian” votes. It seems that the General Secretary of the PPP is not aware that Ras Leon Saul and Ras Alfred have formed the “Heal the Nation Theocracy Party”. One of their beliefs is “Equality of human rights, justice and legalization of marijuana “. Another of their beliefs is probably that neither Mr Rohee or Mr Harmon’s political parties would heal the nation with weed any time soon. First Born’s Junkie warns people to be careful about the “chalice from the dark” and the words of those who will “treat you like a junkie.”
First Born could be talking about black joints mixed with cocaine. In election season could the message about “balling your own spliff” mean take your destiny into your own hands and not worry about any politician?
The PPP congratulated the recently elected President of Uruguay hoping that President Varquez would “continue with the policies and programmes of his predecessor Jose Mujica aimed at upgrading the quality of life of the Uruguayan people”. One of the policies was the decriminalisation of ganja. Another one was legalisation of gay marriage.
It would make the May 2015 elections a lot of fun if the ganja and gay rights become issues for the vote.
Mr Rohee should realise that Mr Harmon only talked about ‘opening debate’ about ganja. Opening debate does not mean anything. The PPP has opened debate about whether to stop beating children in school since 2006 and teachers beat children and children beat others while the debate remains open. Mr Harmon’s party and Mr Rohee’s party might not be so different after all.
The Palm Tree has not been replaced with the Cannabis Leaf as a party symbol for Mr Harmon’s PNC, and the APNU/AFC coalition have been working on branding and have not released anything further about ganja.
Imagine if in the next few months, APNU/AFC create their own Ganja Commission and come up with a position on what the legalisation would look like before waiting for people to vote/not vote for change. Imagine if the public gets to see how APNU views consultation and participation and those nice things it wants to do when it gets into power so that instead of debating further they move on actions beyond talking.
It is frightening for example that CARICOM is considering ‘economic value’ of legal ganja – scary when one considers the devastating economics of the alcohol industry. Red Thread spoke of the injustice of sentencing in the case of 22 year old Ocia Leung. Neither APNU nor the PPP seem to want to consider the injustice of the implementation of the narcotics laws and speak openly about the failure of the narcotics laws .
Two years, I met two young men Smoking Weed Outside a Rum Shop while doing their work.
The men had talked about how they preferred the high grade weed from jamyard. If APNU or HTNTP legalise ganja , hopefully they do a Burnham and make sure that it is only home grown ganja which is made legal and not imports from Jamaica or China or anywhere else.
There is probably another issue in that the new leaders promise to change/not abuse the powers of the Constitution given to them as the current leaders promised when they were about to be new leaders 22 years ago .
Ganja .. with the promise of debate .. might not be such an issue after all.
(Note : I advocate abstinence from ganja and alcohol. I do not advocate prohibition. I do not advocate legalization which would result in unregulated commercialisation and sales like what has happened with alcohol. I do not believe that people should face convictions and have criminal records for possession of marijuana for personal use or consumption. I also have no intention of voting in the 2015 elections. )
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