The National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Grenada says it will legalise and regulate the use of marijuana in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
In order to do this, the political party will have to be successful in the next general election.
Political Leader Dickon Mitchell in a statement says the NDC will not just decriminalise the use of marijuana but legalise the use of marijuana and create a cannabis/marijuana industry that will provide real, big and tangible benefits for the citizens of Grenada.
Mitchell said the NDC will achieve this by doing the following:
By ensuring the marijuana industry is well regulated and provides significant tax revenues for the State of Grenada and that the industry is owned and controlled for the benefit of the citizens of Grenada.
By creating a medical marijuana industry
By promoting the use of by-products from the use of the marijuana plant or the hemp plant.
The NDC political leader says this is significant in ensuring they could transform the economy of Grenada by providing and bringing significant opportunities for citizens to engage in alternative economic activity.
Mitchell believes that decriminalising the use of five marijuana plants or 24 grammes of marijuana is “a little too late” and while the NDC is happy the government is finally beginning to see the “light at the end of the spliff” this does not in any way transform or create a medical marijuana or by-products in marijuana industry.
He says it must be recognised that many citizens, particularly the young, have been made or turned into criminals for the mere use or possession of very small amounts of marijuana.
The NDC political leader says his political party will expunge the records of law-abiding citizens who otherwise have been made criminals by using or possessing marijuana.
Mitchell says the NDC also recognises the importance and significance of marijuana in the religion of the Rastafarian communities and believe they are owed an apology as they too have been criminalised for several years by the use of marijuana for medicinal and religious purposes.
He notes it is important that when Grenada creates the marijuana industry that the Rastafarian community is given special recognition for the role that they have played over the years in championing the fact that the marijuana plant should be legalised and that it should be used for medicinal and economic benefits.
Source : Loop Caribbean