There has been a considerable drug regulation amendment that decriminalizes marijuana partly. This law specifically speaks to small marijuana amounts and has been as paving the way to the legalization of medicinal marijuana in Jamaica. The law came into effect in early 2015 in a country that has for a long time been seen as the marijuana capital city of the world. With this assumption marijuana became so ingrained in Jamaican culture that there can be no separation of the two.
In announcing the changes, Justice Minister, Mark Golding said that the reforms were long overdue for the Caribbean nation. Marijuana is revered among members of the Rastafari movement a majority of who are Jamaicans. The drug is consumed on a regular basis by a majority of ordinary Jamaicans. Jamaican legislative arm of government gave the new amendments the nod in February 2015.
The changes bring with it certain specifications: possession of at least two ounces, which is 56 grams, of cannabis or ‘ganja’ as the drug is popularly refered to in Jamaica, is an offense that carries a penalty of almost $5 ticket with no arrest. The other option of this is that one will have a criminal record in their history.
Other specifications of the amendments are that any cultivation of one to five marijuana plants by a consumer is allowed by law. Rastafaris also carried the day with the amendment; Rastafarian adults can now enjoy marijuana during sacramental celebrations, this is a first from the time that the spiritual movement established its base in Jamaica around the 1930s.
In Trench Town, the late reggae icon Bob Marley’s neighborhood, it is not uncommon to find adults enjoying piped marijuana; here they call it the ‘wisdom weed’ in smoking sessions. These adults are happy with the new law because now the police who exercised heavy handedness in dealing with them will now be more restrained.
