| wikipedia.com |
| Bathsheba, Barbados. |
Barbados Attorney General Adriel Brathwiate last week said that he had doubts his country was winning the war on drugs and said the country should re-examine their existing marijuana laws.
According to the Stabroek News, Brathwaite made his remarks while speaking at the opening of a national drug council meeting that was reviewing the country’s drug policies. He pointed to what he sees as an increase in the country’s marijuana use – particularly by young people – as evidence that their policies are failing.
“Now it is not just the boys on the block [smoking marijuana]but the girls on the block too,” he said. “If you go to football games across Barbados, it is almost the norm. There was a time when the boys used to hide but now boys and girls openly smoking. There was a time I thought we were losing this fight when I used to see marijuana being used openly in communities but I am not sure how I feel about it this morning.”
Brathwaite wasn’t alone in his assessment. Stabroek News also reports on an unnamed High Court judge who recommended legalizing persona use and possession of drugs like marijuana.
Like a lot of Caribbean nations, marijuana rides a strange line between being completely in tolerated by the police yet socially acceptable by most of the society. Still, that doesn’t make it legal – or even really tolerated by the general public. Paul McCartney famously was arrested there in the 1980s. If they’ll arrest a Beatle, they’ll arrest you
Sadly, it doesn’t seem that anyone was listening. The group, dubbed the National Consultation on the Anti-Drug Plan, ended their meeting vowing to uphold current drug policies.
