ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — An Opposition legislator has called on the new Antigua and Barbuda Government to state its position regarding the decriminalisation of marijuana, as legislators debated a bill to allow for alternative options to a jail term.
Joanne Messiah said the Gaston Browne administration needed to make its position clear in respect of the marijuana issue.
«… What the people in the public [including] the youth [and] the Rastafarian community… want to have [is] a firm position with respect to the decriminalisation or legalisation of its use,» she said.
The Opposition legislator also urged the Government from giving the impression that community service is the only option available to the courts for non-serious offences.
«The point has to be made that it is the court, the magistrate of the judge who will have to determine whether this option, along with the person, is there,» she said. She insisted that the Government must be specific given the fact that «there are young people out there…who are running away with the notion that this is an automatic thing [for community service only]».
Attorney General, Steadroy Benjamin, at the same time, told Parliament that the amendment would «prevent young first time offenders, people who smoke one spliff (marijuana cigarette) who is convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment».
He said the new legislation would give these young offenders the option to go out there and do community work rather than go to prison.
Several Caribbean countries are examining the need to decriminalise marijuana for medicinal purposes. The issue has been on the agenda of the last few summits of the Caribbean Community, who have not yet taken a definitive position on the matter.
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