Background to the Ganja Issue in Jamaica

Background to the Ganja Issue in Jamaica

On October 8th, 1999, the Senate of Jamaica approved a resolution calling on Government to establish a commission to deal with the issue of ganja (the term used for cannabis or marijuana, a plant whose production, distribution, and consumption although widespread is illegal in contemporary Jamaica). A National Commission on Ganja was appointed shortly afterwards charged with investigating and possibly resolving the disparities between the interests and perceptions of the citizenry and the positions and actions taken by government over time with regard to ganja , to examine apparent inequities in the administration of justice, bureaucratic insensitivities to the cultural context of the ganja "problem", profound differences of opinion and "fact" as to ganja and health, and the substantial shifts in global thought on cannabis and how these shifts might impact Jamaica. The road leading to the establishment of this new National Commission has been long and difficult. What follows are several critical historical and sociological facts that might help to set this in perspective.

To begin with, the cultivation of cannabis in the Western Hemisphere is not new. Evidence of commercial cultivation in the British North American colonies can be dated as far back as the 17th century. Fibers of the cannabis plant provided hemp of quality which could be used for manufacturing rope for sailing ships as well as for twine, cloth, and paper production. Cannabis oils were used to produce paints, varnishes, and soaps and as a valued ingredient for cattle feed. There is little or no evidence of human consumption of cannabis during the early centuries of colonization. For these reasons and to counter a Russian monopoly on hemp production, the British quite early on encouraged cannabis cultivation in its American colonies. In fact, the new United States, after winning its independence, continued to export hemp to Europe until the economic importance of that plant was replaced by cotton. A geographically and climatically adaptable plant, it was (and continues to be) cultivated in many regions of the world. Of great sociological significance is the fact that it took many decades if not centuries in the New World before the human ingestion of cannabis was firmly established and then to be declared a "problem" by the authorities.

Cultivated for its value as hemp, Cannabis sativa, in limited quantities, could be found in Jamaica early in its colonial history. From a botanical perspective, this plant, if not exactly the same, was very similar to that now grown and known in Jamaica as ganja . The significant difference between them is that the ganja plant (also classified as Cannabis sativa), is cultivated almost exclusively for human consumption and not for its commercial value as hemp with its usage dictated more by social and cultural preference than economic gain. Hindi in origin, ganja, in tandem with other Hindi terms and specific East Indian patterns of use and consumption, provide indisputable evidence that the social use of marijuana in contemporary Jamaica was introduced to the island by indentured laborers from India brought to replace recently emancipated slaves during the last half of the 19th century. Within a few score years, its use rapidly proliferated throughout the large African descended laboring population of the island and was quite thoroughly integrated into their way of life. A century or so later, Jamaica arguably had the greatest density of ganja users in the Western Hemisphere. Anthropologists carrying out studies of the possible effects of heavy chronic ganja use in the 1970s estimated that more than 68% of the adult male population of their study sites (some five representative rural communities) were ganja smokers. Moreover, these male smokers comprised just one part of the ganja-using population. Women, in lesser numbers, also smoked; many individuals, smokers and non-smokers alike, drank ganja teas and utilized tonics for medicinal and prophylactic purposes; others used the substance as external salves; on occasion, some consumed it as food.

For almost all of this using population, ganja was and continues to be considered a beneficial herb. Virtually unanimously, plantation workers and peasant farmers, all manual laborers working under harsh conditions, categorically maintained that smoking ganja enabled them to work faster, harder, and longer, a conviction that ran completely counter to the long-held judgment of many "experts" that smoking cannabis leads almost inevitably to what is termed the "amotivational syndrome". Those anthropologists of the 1970s also found that ganja use in Jamaica use was closely linked to socioeconomic class and to status. Jamaicans generally voiced opinions about ganja culturally appropriate to his or her socioeconomic standing and social aspirations. For the middle class and above, ganja was and continues to be perceived as individually deleterious and socially pernicious and ganja use an accurate indicator of lower class status, much the same as common law unions, obeah, and other magico-religious practices. Socially mobile lower class individuals, some who only recently discontinued ganja use, tend not only to avoid public use of ganja but to denounce the practice with much vehemence. Nevertheless, despite the introduction of hard drugs into Jamaican society, the relatively massive exportation of ganja to the United States, and an escalation of violence related to drugs, traditional patterns of and attitudes toward ganja use in Jamaica have not changed markedly in recent years nor, unfortunately, have disparities in law, power, and opinion.

Cultivation, importation, possession, or use of ganja has been illegal in Jamaica since 1913. The Council of Evangelical Churches petitioned the Legislative Council in 1912 to prohibit ganja smoking arguing that ganja smoking had led to dramatic increases in the number of admissions to the local Lunatic Asylum. Although the petition was rejected, the issue came before LegCo again the following year when Great Britain requested Jamaica (and other British colonies) to ratify the International Opium Convention. In addition to dutifully assenting to the Convention, the colonial government also attempted to deal with the escalating ganja issue by adding prohibitions against its cultivation and consumption.. These additions can be seen as one element of larger socio-legal maneuver by the elite to control the increasingly restless mass of poor working people. Restrictions against irregular military drilling, the practice of obeah, the use of seditious language as well as the smoking of ganja were all acts motivated by the fear of the plantocracy that this mass would rise in revolt. Elite fears that led to such controls had been fueled, directly and indirectly, by the relatively benign findings of the Indian Hemp Commission about cannabis in India and the very considerable unease over an official English presence in Jamaica that had been attempting to restrain the excesses of the plantocrats.

Three events in the 1930s propelled government to stiffen the provisions of ganja legislation. The first provided international support for proscriptive action, in 1937 the United States passed the Marihuana Tax Act and mounted a massive, vitriolically negative campaign against cannabis by its Bureau of Narcotics. The second, the rise of Rastafarianism in Jamaica (and its ritual linkages to ganja), further fueled internal fears of social unrest. The third, massive demonstrations at the end of the decade due to severe economic distress caused by the Great Depression and failure of the sugar industry, was demonstrating to the elite that their dire predictions to be correct. One consequence of this was to increase in 1941 the penalty for first ganja convictions and to establish mandatory imprisonment for all ganja convictions. During the 1940s and 1950s, the police and newspapers carried out partisan campaigns against ganja, claiming a linkage of that substance with growing criminal activity on the island. By the 1960s, sporadic acts of civil disorder and the insurrection of a ganja-using religious group led by Claudius Henry led to the killing of several British soldiers and to further stiffening of the Dangerous Drugs Law. In fact, the police at that time, according to a statement by the then Minister of Home Affairs, were convinced that from 50 to 75% of violent crimes were the direct result of ganja smoking. Since that time, the Dangerous Drugs Law has been amended on several occasions, each revision giving the police additional power and resources to combat the traffic, production, and consumption of ganja. Even so, ganja cultivation and use have increased dramatically during this long period of legal prohibition which, at least from one perspective, demonstrates that Jamaican regulative institutions, the laws, the courts, and the prisons, have failed to reduce cultivation or use of ganja and that anti-ganja legislation and practice may well have had damaging side effects on the general administration of justice.

The necessity for confronting the issue of ganja in full social, cultural, economic, political, and international context is now apparent to all concerned. The major political parties (the Peoples National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party), have both set up committees to explore decriminalizing possession of small amounts of ganja. Decriminalization, however, remains a hotly contested and highly controversial issue. Many rural and urban workers together with Rastafarians claiming the right to use ganja in religious rites argue strongly for legalizing possession, cultivation, and consumption of small quantities of the herb. Other interest groups, particularly those concerned with health issues or the alleged linkage of ganja smoking to criminal behavior, oppose any easing of the current laws. Some officials, clearly opposing decriminalization, have also argued that calls for legalization are merely attempts by "big people" to create large ganja enterprises for huge profits. For others, the possible international repercussions are paramount. This, in short, is the thicket straddling the road the new National Commission on Ganja will have to traverse.

The terms of reference given the Commission by Government permits it to receive submissions or memoranda, to hear testimony, evaluate research and studies, to engage in dialogue with interest groups and to undertake public consultations with the aim of guiding a national approach. It will indicate what changes, if any, are required to existing laws or entail new legislation, taking into account the social, cultural, economic, and international factors. The Commission will recommend the diplomatic initiatives, security considerations, educational process, and programs of public information which will need to be undertaken in the light of whatever changes may be proposed. It is expected to finalize its report within nine months.

The Commission is chaired by Professor Barry Chevannes, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the West Indies (an anthropologist and authority on the Rastafari) and includes Dr. Eileen Goldson, deputy chairman of the National Council on Drug Abuse, Reverend Webster Edwards, Norma Linton, Q.C., Dimario McDowell (graphic artist/music promoter), Barbara Smith (former Principal of Montego Bay High School), and Tony Freckleton (businessman from Mandeville).