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An initiative of the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Task Force, the Ganja Law Reform Coalition and the National Alliance for the Legalization of Ganja

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The Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association

The Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association is a collaborative initiative spearheaded by the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Task Force, the National Alliance for the Legalization of Ganja, the Ganja Law Reform Coalition as partners and Community Consultants Ltd. as the Project Manager.

The objectives are:

a. To represent the best interests of the various stakeholders, giving primacy of place to the traditionalganjacultivatorforaspecifiedperiod.

b. To lobby the Government of Jamaica for the establishment of a properly regulated cannabis industry in all aspects, cultivation, agro-processing, medicinal and its many and varied by-products

c. To promote control, education and taxation as important planks of a regulated cannabis industry.

d. To provide relevant and timely information and technological support, aimed at growing the industry, bring prosperity to members and other stakeholders and revenue to the government.

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1 Call to Order and Welcome, Senator Angela Brown Burke.

2 Purpose of Launch, CCMR Director.

3 A Historical Perspective, Mr. Louis Moyston, Author & Historian

4 Messages of Support – Participating CCMR Task Force Organizations

5 International Messages of Support

• Mr.BlaineDowdle,CEO,MedCannAcess(Canada)

• ProfessorCharlesNesson,HarvardLawSchool(USA)

6 Citations for Advocacy

• Dr.RonaldLampart/tobepresentedathishouse

• Mr.PaulChang

7 TributeforExtraordinaryCourageousAdvocacy–PeterTosh

8 Recognition of Selected National Council Members

9 Launch Declaration – CCMR Directors

10 NextSteps,PaulBurke,ProgrammeDirector

11 GuestSpeaker-JoshStanley–CEO,StrainsofHope

12 Closing Remarks

Agenda

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We have always believed that the issue of reform of our existing ganja laws and its legalization must start from a moral, humanitarian, religious and cultural standpoint. That is why the National Alliance for the Legalization of Ganja was formed years ago, in 1997. We have always advocated forfulllegalizationandseedecriminalizationasapositivereformandonlyasafirststeptowardslegalization.

However,wealso recognize that internationally today,academiaand themedicalandscientificcommunity are stronger in their advocacy for the use of medicinal cannabis / ganja and we also strongly support that thrust as a step towards the legalization of ganja, in spite of the fact that we do not advocate its smoking at all.

We reiterate that as an organization, we do not promote the smoking of ganja or anything else. However, we advocate for its full and total legalization.

Historically: We are on record, several times and consistently so, that ganja should be legalized and allowed to be smoked by adult individuals in their private dwellings and designated areas, but not in public spaces. Certainly, the National Alliance for the Legalization of Ganja, has taken a strong, clear, uncompromising and consistent position on this matter and this is a matter of public record in the Jamaica Hansard, when we appeared in Parliament several years ago.

We have always stated that it is both wrong and discriminatory to persecute members of the Rastafarian Faith and others for smoking ganja and that it has been a cruel, unjust, anti-social legislation that has allowed the state to arrest, often brutalize, lock up under inhuman conditions, fine and imprison persons for the smoking of ganja and leave them with a criminal record.Notwithstanding our strong and consistent position on those matters, unapologetically, we do not promote the smoking of ganja, but we are strong and uncompromising advocates for the full legalization of ganja in Jamaica and at the earliest possible opportunity.

Introduction and Background

Position of the National Alliance for the Legalization of Ganja - For the Record

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That has always been our position. We have loudly and publicly declared that decriminalization was only a half way step in the right direction and that (1), we were advocating for full legalization for its use and (2), for the banning of all smoking in public spaces.

Wetookthispositionattheveryoutsetofourformation,somefifteenyearsbeforetheMinistryofHealth in 2013 banned smoking of tobacco in public spaces. At that time, Paul Burke, Chairman, Paul Chang, Jah Lion / Clinel Robinson, Michael Lorne, Louis Moyston, among others and Ras DaSilva, then Chairman, Rastafarian Centralization Organization / RCO (now deceased), were active members who participated and assisted in the development of our positions papers.

Currently: The Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force, formally established on 12th September, 2013, under the patronage of the Hon. Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining and chaired by Professor Archibald McDonald, Principal of the University of the West Indies, Mona, has been established to represent the operational, developmental and business aspects of the ganja industry in all its aspects, while the Ganja Law Reform Coalition, chaired by Paul Chang, a long standing and outspoken advocate, continues its advocacy for the urgent reform of Jamaica’s outdated and unjust laws.

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Citation of Recognition

Paul F.X. ChangPresented To

This citation is presented as a token of appreciation to a Jamaican who slapped away decades of island bourgeoisie hypocrisy that thoroughly derided ganja to a point of extreme taboo. An Architect, Businessman, Father, Thinker and so much more, Paul F.X. Chang single-handedly since the early 1990s led efforts to reconstruct societal perspectives about ganja and to this day travels the globe extensively in giving and receiving knowledge about the virtues of the herb and its positive impact on people.

He is responsible, through grit and inspiration, for developing the foundations of an organized and professionalmovementofinfluentialJamaicansseizedwiththeimportanceofganjalegalizationandmakingsignificantheadwayinreorientingsocietalperspectivesthatnowplacesJamaicaonthe brink of substantive ganja law reform.

The Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association will be forever proud of his valiant work and he is no doubt deserving of this honour at this a time of our inauguration.

Presented this 5th Day of April, 2014, by the hand of theLeadership of the Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association

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Citation of Recognition

Winston Hubert McIntosh OM aka Peter Tosh

POSTHUMOUSPresented To

This citation is presented as a token of appreciation for the internationally pioneering work of our late reggae superstar

who championed the cause of ganja legalization in a time of great societal pushback. His songs ‘Legalize It’ and ‘Buckingham Palace’ are testament to his forthright promulgation of what he knew was right. He knew then that Jamaica’s ganja laws were outdated, discriminatory and resulted in criminalizing otherwise innocent and law-abiding people despite it being used in many quarters by societal leaders with impunity. Peter made a statement that ganja was key to the medicinal, spiritual and political awakening-in Jamaica and around the World.

Several decades later today, the world is rapidly embracing the words of Tosh.

The Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association is absolutely proud of the this icon and he is no doubt deserving of this honour at this a time of our inauguration.

Presented this 5th Day of April, 2014, by the hand of theLeadership of the Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association

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Profile(Left) Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Josh Stanley

Guest Speaker

Josh Stanley is a leading medical cannabis entrepreneur and advocate working to advance the medical cannabis industry in the United States and throughout the world. Josh has worked in the medical cannabis industry for over seven years and was one ofthefirstindividualstoopenamedicalmarijuanadispensaryinDenver, Colorado.

HestartedColorado’sfirsttruepoliticalactioncommitteeand501c4,theMedicalMarijuanaIndustryGroup, which he co-chaired.

In2010,JoshassistedinthedraftingofHouseBill1284,thefirstbillofitskindtofurtherdefineand establish Colorado’s medicinal cannabis state regulatory structure through the Colorado DepartmentofRevenue. The following yearheassisting indraftingHouseBill 1043andwasresponsible for writing the research and development portion of the bill. Josh sat on the rules and regulations board of the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division as well as the rules and regulations board for research and development.

Josh worked with National Geographic Channel on a groundbreaking television series called American Weed that chronicled his family’s mission to keep medical marijuana legal in Colorado and tracked his observational research studies and patient successes with medical cannabis.

Josh is credited with creating the idea to breed a non psychoactive strain of the cannabis plant with low Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and high Cannabidiol (CBD) content. Called “Charlotte’s Web,” this specialized sativa varietal of medical cannabis was named after pediatric patient Charlotte Figi who suffered from over 300 debilitating seizures a week as a result of a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. Josh’s effort to help children like Charlotte restore their lives with high-CBD cannabis extracts made international headlines in 2013 and was prominently featured on Sanjay Gupta’s highly acclaimed CNN documentary specialWEED,AndjustrecentlyinMarchof2014was followed by the sequel, WEED2.

Josh had the honor to perform a TEDxTalkin Boulder, Colorado that allows viewers to understand, in less than 19 minutes, the true healing powers of medicinal hemp, (high CBD strains).

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In April 2012, Josh and his five brothers co-founded the Realm of Caring, a 501c3 non-profitorganization, committed to promoting a higher quality of life for Coloradans affected by debilitating conditions through the use of non-smokeable forms of concentrated CBD cannabis oil. In October 2013, Josh left the Realm of Caring in the hands of his brothers to pursue new ventures in the cannabis industry. He continues to advocate daily for medical marijuana patient rights and his role as a leading spokesperson for the medical cannabis industry has led to Colorado becoming the firststateintheworldtovoteinfavorofendingmarijuanaprohibition.

A much sought after speaker, Josh has the ability to sift through the propaganda and fear encompassing the medical marijuana industry and delivers a compassionate appeal to end cannabis prohibition.

Josh has recently been active in international arenas as he seeks to foster the advocacy for medicinal rights to cannabis on the global stage.

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The Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force

Vision.

To see Jamaica takes its rightful place as one of the world’s best producers of quality ganja, enablingitsmedicalhealthuseforadultsinthefirstinstance,andsecondly,linkingtheproductandby-products around our music, culture, spiritual use and consciousness and to create legitimate business opportunities and enable prosperity for business stakeholders and by extension, the wider Jamaican society.

Objectives

1. To study, from a Jamaican perspective, all aspects of cannabis (ganja), including the traditional, social, spiritual, environmental, agricultural, tourism, wellness, commercial and medical uses;

2. To recommend actions for the promotion of a legitimate and regulated cannabis industry, wide enough in scope to allow simultaneous development of:

(a) local entrepreneurship

(b) cooperatives,

(c) larger, more capital-intensive and professionally-managed enterprises, and

(d) all in between.

3. To seek to maximize the social, economic, environmental and medical / health opportunities for Jamaica and its’ stakeholders.

4. ToensurethatinformationrelatingtothepotentialofJamaicanCannabisIndustriesismade available to all investors, local and overseas, large and small, and especially the small Jamaican farmer and entrepreneur, and that their interests are fully protected by legislation and supported in the development of the local cannabis industry.

5. Toadvocatefora45%minimumJamaicanownershipofalllicensedcannabisindustry establishments, investments, etc.

6. To support a public education programme.

7. To advocate for stricter enforcement and penalties for the illegal exportation of ganja.

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8. TosupportthelobbyandadvocacyeffortsoftheGanjaLawReformCoalitioninthefirst instance as well as to lobby for regulated and controlled (legal) ganja in Jamaica’, to be guided by National Interests of Security; Public Health and Public Safety; Tradition, History & Culture; Economic Development, and guided by research, science and technology.

9. To work with the Parliamentary Caucus on Cannabis, and the Ministry of Justice’s Committee on Cannabis Law Reform formed with the Ganja Law Reform Coalition of Jamaica,tocooperativelyinfluencethedraftingoftheproposednewLegislationand Regulations of Cannabis Law Reform, to achieve the Objectives.

10. To promote the implementation of a unique Jamaican bi-modal approach to the emerging Cannabis Industries locally, regionally and internationally: See Appendix One

Structure

To establish a working committee primarily of researchers, technocrats, entrepreneurs and knowledgeable persons and an extended committee of comprising of representatives of various organizations which indicate interest and support the objectives, with the committees to meet alternatively.

AppendixOne

In terms of the development of the local cannabis industry and a Cannabis Future Growers and Producers Association, to commence exploring the following development options and opportunities:

(1) Wellness,HerbalWholePlant

a. Cottage Industry, Small Farmers, Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses, Start Ups

b. Think Brands: local, regional, global

c. Think ganja here more like wine and vineyards, and not corn and soya-beans; boutique, family. small farms; cottage industries

d. with boutique hotels, spas, restaurants, coffee houses, shops, guest houses, clinics

e. cottage industries for food, personal-care, wellness, beauty, clothing, travel & leisure, spirituality

f. construction-paperfibers,seedoils,essentialoils,seednut,leaf,whole-plant,charcoal, environmental-soil rehabilitation

g. organic,ital,non-gmocertification,conscious…ornot…choices…tax,regulationand control

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2) Capital,Science&Technology,Industries

a. Research Science & Technology

b. Professional Management, Capital, Entrepreneurship

c. Thinkoflargerscalecannabisfieldsandslopes;perhapsmorecapital-intensivefarming

d. extractionsofseedoils,essentialoils,fibers,seednuts,whole-plantextracts

(3) Organicornot…againchoice…tax,regulationandcontrol

a. Think Global Brands in

b. Tourism

c. Wellness, Health & Leisure

d. Plant-based pharmaceuticals

e. Foods, Oils

f. Personal Care, Body Care, Beauty

g. Drinks

I. Edibles

j. Fibers: fabrics, paper, other

k. Fuel

(4) AnyothermattersthattheTaskForcemaydeemrelevantandnecessaryinpromotingits objectives.

Prepared by Paul Burke and Paul Chang, Directors, Ganja Law Reform Coalition and Founding Members, National Alliance for the Legalization

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The Ganja Law of 1913: 101 years of oppressive injustice Louis EA Moyston

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Ganja Law of 1913. This law was rooted fear and also in a tradition of law making that discriminated against lower class black people. It is a racist law that epitomizes the oppressive injustice of slavery and the colonial/planter system. This racist law was the idea of the Council of Evangelical Churches in Jamaica. The Law gave the police special powers that members of the force used it, in a brutal and repressive manner, against the people in general and the Rastafarians in particular. The Ganja Law of 1913 must b abolished and be replaced by a new regime. It may have been at the Peace Concert that Peter Tosh called on black people to be conscious of themselves and become aware of the laws that govern them. The earliest debates on ganja were informed by elite white perception and anecdotal evidence. They lacked the philosophical, logical and scientificperspectives.

It is important for the ganja debates in Jamaica inspire critical discourses in law and justice in Jamaica. Important examinations should be conducted on the Ganja Law (1913), its roots in natural law theory, in formed by Christian morality and the heavily ‘sanctioned-based’ British system of justice. The Christian morality and the British political thinking converged on the perception of black as ‘brutes’ that, at best were “instinctual”. Austin-Broos (1997) cites the Anglicans and Baptists voices on how Christianization has expunged from the ex-slaves “the revelry” from “Jamaican life”-the dances, celebrations and spiritual association withObeah andMyal (p 40). The ex-slave was perceived as “quashee”, that‘unthinking’ being that “the Christians would transform thought moral redemption (Austin-Broos 1997). These issues are important to the wider society especially the area of education: is it also for social control? This ganja debate should serve as the ‘tipping point’ leading into further discussions on the ‘hauntingspecters”oftheBritishcolonialsituationthatinflictingthecontinuedsorrowinsteadofthejoys of an independent people.

As an independent country, it is important for our young lawyers and legal researchers to pay careful attention to legal history in Jamaica and aim to provide an alternative system of law making contrary to the a system that is characterised by the law as an instrument of control, an instrument to maintain status quo. There is, indeed, the need to discuss, what is justice? And, whose rationality (the law) is it anyway? Some of the ills of the past are haunting specters in today’s society. Not only is the Ganja Law one of these ills, but the thinking behind such law is very much alive. Its features are so clear in the recent development of the Anti-Gang Law, and also the neglect to assert a new thinking in society andeducationafter independence..Thereistheneedtoredefinethelawinthiscountry.Giventhefoundations upon which the law was constructed, and its operationalisation, there is wide disrespect for the law resulting in a situation in which ‘wrong is right’ and ‘right is wrong’. We are certainly in a ‘crisis moment’ in Jamaica.

The history of ganja and the Jamaican society is interesting and instructive. It is interesting because of the major characters and setting associated with the Law of 1913 and its subsequent amendments. It

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is instructive because it illustrates the brutal nature of law making process in the post-slavery society, and its oppressive application against the masses, lower class black people. The emergence of the campaign and preparation of this oppressive instrument, the 1913 Law and its Amendment in the1920’s,wasledbytheChurchandwhiteelites.Duringthe1930’sand1940’sthenewspaperincombination with elite perception, the police and the Resident Magistrate were the major characters in the amendments in that period. In the pre and post Independence period the government through the Ministries of Home Affairs and later the Minister of Health led the ganja debate of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Today it is the Minister of Justice who plays the lead role for the government in the current ganja debate. The planter controlled society metered out severe punishment to black labourers in the formofextremelyhighfinesforpenaltiesfromcourtcasesinthepost-emancipationperiod.Thefineforganja,“avictimlesscrime”,wasexorbitantforpeoplewhohadlittleornomoney.Whenthefineswere not effective as deterrent, they were combined with mandatory imprisonment. It was this law that introduced “mandatory imprisonment” in the jurisprudence landscape of Jamaica. This measure did not curb the use of ganja.

At the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century the church in Jamaica saw its power declining. There were the emergence of the revivalist movements and also an increasing of vices-use of opium, ganja and alcohol. It felt that it had the moral obligation to curb, if not destroy these vices. Many newspaper reports have illustrated the issues of the church regarding ganja smoking among the “natives”; and also its association of ganja to insanity. In 1912 there was an Opium Convention at The Hague. There were also increasing concerns in Jamaica on ganja smoking among the “natives”. According to one study, the Council of Evangelical Churches prepared the Law and sent it to the Legislative Council in 1912. It was not acted upon. In the same period the newspaper published that out of 283 people admitted to the asylum, three (3) admitted to using ganja. About the same period there was another article on the “Dangers of ganja smoking among the natives of this colony” illustrating the dangers of ganja smoking now that there is increasing evidence of ganja smoking among black people. The white elites associated violence with ganja smoking; and since they perceive black people as ‘brutes’ they developed narratives of the ‘evils of ganja smoking’ among lower class blacks. During thecolonial/planterruleracismwastheorderoftheday;andhighfinesasoppressivepenaltiesweremetered out against lower class black people for the simplest of crimes. The matter of race emerged again in the mid-1960’s was raised by government Senator Ronald Irvine in the ganja debate with Opposition Senator Ken McNeil.

The Ganja Law of 1913 was employed against the “cultivation and importation” of ganja, punishable byafineofonehundredpoundsorupto12monthsimprisonment.ThesameCouncilofEvangelicalMovement observed that the Law of 1913 was “practically useless”. According to reports the Church called for amendments for smoking selling and entering premises upon which ganja is grown by the police.Therewasnoregardfortherightsofmanonhowheusedhisprivateproperty.Thisreflectiononthesecondamendmenttookatthetimeofthe1924UNOpiumconferenceinGeneva.The1924Amendment, inspiredby theChurchcalled fordrastic increasedoffinesand imprisonmentonfirstconviction. These were oppressive features of the law applying to a “victimless crime”. It was renamed “DangerousDrugLawof1924”The1930and1940’swasmarkedwiththeriseoftheearlyRastafarimovement and the role of lower class black people resisting oppression. The leading newspaper and the white elites began a national campaign against ganja against their fears and lies about the plant. The police and the Resident Magistrates of the parishes were the leading characters in the amendmentofthe1924Law.Therewasconcernedthatganjasmokingmayhavebeenassociatedwiththe uprisings among the masses in1938. The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act may have provided propaganda during the period.

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The1940’samendmentwas,inpart,aresponsetotheemergenceofLeonardP.HowellandtheearlyRastafari movement. The development of the Ganja amendments in the 1960’s was also associated with radical activism by Rasta and also violence associated with the Henry back-to-Africa movement. It was the period of the “Coral Gardens Affairs” that the amendments of the 1960’s took place. New developmentsinJamaicanpoliticsinthe1970’sandinfluencefromscientificdevelopmentsaboutganjasmoking, smashed the anecdotal allegations of the past. This led to profound change of the ganja law in the 1970’s by removing the list of criminal activities associated with the law and its mandatory imprisonment characteristic. There is much about the illegal trade that is associated with criminality. It isthereanimportantstrategyincrimefightingtoregulateandtaxtheganjabusiness.Thiswriterobserved the criminal activities and violence associated with the ganja business in New York during the 1980’s. The illegal trade has criminalized aspects of the Rastafarian community and Reggae music. In his extensive writings on the history of the Rastafari Van Dijk (1999), using extensive newspaper and police reports look at the ganja, Rastafari and crime and violence in New York and London. During the late 1980’s Leachim Semaj did a study fro the New York City Police on the Rastafarians and crime in New York City. Peter Tosh did not remain quiet. He was critical of this new trend in the Rastafarian community.Heoncesaidthattherearemanyimpostersinthemovement;andthattheyreadBible24/7“but they are agents of Lucifer” who “mek I and I look like criminals in the eyes on men”. He reminded the Rastafari movement of the founding principles of self-reliance and industry in Pick Myself Up

The 1990’s was greeted with new developments in medical marijuana in the USA and Canada. Matters concerning philosophy, logic and science replaced the tradition of anecdotal evidence associated with marijuana,crimeandinsanity.InMayof1994therewasevidencethatganjareformwastakingplacein Europe. “Reefer madness”, according to Michael massing, “strikes again in the USA” in the midst of emerging debates on for a new regime for marijuana in that country. Against the background the National Institute of Health in the US chided the Federal government for its foolish policy on marijuana; and sections of the Medical community in the US began to share and discuss enlightened opinion on medical marijuana rooted in experimental and medical research. Some states in the USA began to play an increasing role in the marijuana debate. It is important to note the recognition of the spiritual role of ganja “based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act” in the New York 9th Circuit of Appeal, recognizing the right of related groups to have a limited amount of the product for spiritual reason. It was reported that a World Trade organization study asserted that cannabis is safer than alcohol. In recent months it was reported that Barack Obama, the US President repeated this fact, that marijuana isnomoredangerousthanalcohol.Therewasanexplosionofscientificknowledgethat.calledforthe“re-assessment of old policies on marijuana”. It was against this background that at the ending of the 1990’s Canada began to debate and conduct testing for medical marijuana. The global developments in the marijuana debate leading to the end of the 1990’s.

The resurgence of the medical marijuana campaign in the US during the 1990’s inspired the lobbying activities in Jamaica en route to calls for legalization/decriminalization of ganja. It was the lobbing of groups in the late 1990’s that called for the Ganja Commission of 2000 under the leadership of the late professor Barry Chevannes. The published Report in 2001 offers new approaches to design an appropriate regime for ganja in 21st century Jamaica. The second coming of the medical marijuana and the triumphs of the related lobbyists in several states in the US during the 2012 Presidential elections once more inspired increasing articles and lobbying effort supporting the call for a new regime for ganja in Jamaica. The Minister of Justice, Senator Mark Golding asserted his case to revise the ganja law. According to the Minister the act to reform the Ganja Law “include possession ofganjaformedicaluse,scientificresearch,spiritualpurposeandthepossessionofsmallamountforrecreational purpose. These ideas are by far the most progressive and far reaching proposal to reform

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the ganja law. However, the matter of lobbying and public education must continue as the force to assistinrefiningandensuringthatthistimethepoliticianswillact.Itappearsthatthisdebatehasbeenremoved from the strictures of “party animosities”, into a new world of science, logic and philosophy.

A study of Ganja Smoking in Jamaica was completed by Rubin and Comitas in 1972 may have also hadinfluenceontheganjadebatesofthe1970’s.ChangesintheUSAduringthe1990’sand2000’s,haveinfluencedlevelsofganjalobbyinginJamaicathatledtotheChevannesCommissionin2000and the current initiative led by the Minister of Justice, Minister Mark Golding respectively. The time has come for a new regime for ganja, similar to the license and regulation of alcohol. According to Fraser (1974)inhisstudyontheganjalawsintheregion,theeradicationofganjaisimpossibleandthetimehas come for a new legal regime.

LouisEAMoyston

PhD Candidate Dept. of Government UWI (awaiting defence)

Studied-City University of New York : Undergraduate: BA Political Science and Int’l Relations

Lecturer: Research Methods and Philosophy of Education

Researcher

Newspaper columnist

Publications

“Seaforth in theEyeof theStorm:EarlyRastafari in theUprisingsof 1938”, in Caribbean Political Activism, edited by Prof. Rupert Lewis, published in 2013. The following articles have been submitted to be published in separate Monographs by the Rastafari Studies Department: two chapters on “Leonard P. Howell andearlyRastafariinanti-Colonialpolitics1933-1938”,tobepublishedinveryearly2014;andTheLawvs.thePeople-theGanjaLawof1913100hundredyearsofoppressive injustice tobepublished inmid-2014.Newspaper writings are published in The Daily Observer on a regular basis.

Currently working on two books :Leonard P. Howell and the early Rastafari Movement and

The Ganja Chronicles: from Jamaica to the world

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LouisEAMoystonPeterTosh:“LegalizeIt”

OnJanuary18,January2014,theCannabisStakeholdersForumwaslaunchedintheMulti-FoundationalRoom, at the University of the West Indies. After the salutations in the opening statement of my presentation, I paid tribute to Peter Tosh for his enduring campaign, nationally and internationally, for the legalization of ganja. His life oscillated between Schopenhauer’s will and representation and Nietzsche’s life of tragic existence. His ‘will’-the inner-self and its representation in music illustrates his spiritual embrace and philosophical orientation. He endured the sorrow of suffering during the 1960’s, the horror of near death police brutality in the 1970’s, and a brutal and violent killing in the 1980’s. He brought joy to many for his militant political strides and spiritual themes. His music connects our lives with our history and contemporary society. It was informed by a new morality and radical politics that were also some of the characteristics the political leadership and environment during the 1970’s.

Tosh’s music is a powerful instrument of education. Members of the Eastern Caribbean Community informed this writer in New York that they learned about apartheid and the anti-apartheid struggles and some deeper encounter with Rastafari from Tosh’s music. Tosh used the stage to spread the good news about the ‘new’ King and Messiah in a similar manner to Leonard P. Howell and his street meetings in St. Thomas during the 1930’s. As an artiste Tosh captures the essence of Rastafari and assert it in his music. The following songs illustrate his apprehension of his spiritual ideas and its representation in the form of music: I Am That Am, Rastafari Is, Let Jah be Praised and Jah is my Light and Salvation. There is a high level of intellectual quality and artistic ability in Tosh’s music: in the themes of Rastafari, legalization of ganja and other issues concerning equal rights and justice. He was a gifted thinker, artist, performer and musician.

The “stepping razor” may have contemplated these questions, what is justice is it? And whose rationality is it? He spoke about the justice in a tone suggesting his rejection of the wrong doctrine of Christian morality (rooted in natural law) that informed the development of the Ganja Law (1913). At the 1978 Peace Concert he spoke about laws in Jamaican the society that were created by the elites to keep the under privileged in a state of ignorance and extreme poverty. This writer suggests that Tosh was asserting his school of critical legal thinking arguing that the laws are associated with oppressive injusticesetaspolicyobjectivesofthecolonialelite.Hetoldthecrowdthathewasqualifiedtoospeakbecause he was humiliated and received a near-death brutal police attack for ganja. According to Toshspeakingatashowin1982atMontegoBaysaid,“Ihaveallrightstotalk….becauseIsufferedthe tribulation for smoking the herb”. Some of his songs creatively advance his thinking on justice and ganja are: Legalize It, Bush doctor, Nah Go a Jail Fi Ganja, Bush Doctor and Buckingham Palace.

Peter Tosh was a long standing activist for African liberation. There is evidence of his participation in a Kingston demonstration against the Ian smith’s white racist minority government and unilateral declaration of Independence (UDI) in Rhodesia during the 1960’s. The dominant political leadership in Jamaica led a forceful struggle in support of the liberation in Southern Africa. This setting was that

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background within which Tosh used his stage and music to launch his anti-apartheid campaigns. In a speech at the Peace Concert at the National Stadium Tosh declared, that 1978 is the year celebrating the anti-apartheid struggles; he refreshed his solidarity to these struggles. He called on black people to be conscious of themselves and become aware of the laws that govern them. He asserted his apprehension of themes of African unity and anti-apartheid struggles in songs such as, African, Apartheid and Recruiting Soldiers for Jah Army. His music played an important cultural role among the guerillasfightinginZimbabweduringthe1970’s.Asanobservertothetransitionalelection(veryearly1980’s)inZimbabwe,thiswriterwasinvitedtoavictorypartyorganisedbymembersoftheZimbabwe’sNationalAfricanUnion(ZANU)andwitnessedguerillasdancingtheirtraditionaldancestoPeterTosh’sEqual Rights and Justice album. It was explained that their endurance in the “bush fighting” wasbuoyed by this kind of music. Someone from St. Vincent went to South Africa in 1992 as an observer in the transition to the black majority government, he told this writer that he observed members of the African National Congress (ANC) army singing and dancing to Tosh’s Recruiting Soldiers for Jah Army. The capturing of the essence of the African liberation struggles and its assertion in the music caught theimaginationoftheliberationfightersinthoseareaswhereismusicmadesignificantcontributiontothe struggles.

The artist, musician and performer possessed “enlightened eyes” whose radical politics was informed by race and a new concept of justice. The planter/colonial Jamaican society was informed by race (white supremacy) and that the assertion of race awareness (black consciousness) was an important milestone in black liberation. His anti-imperialist themes b began to appear in his music from as early as Pound Get a Blow, to The Day the Dollar Die, Babylon your Queen-dom is Falling and No Nuclear War. His radical political themesappear in songs suchas400 Hundred Years, Get Up Stand Up, Equal Rights and Justice, Only the Poor Man Feel It and Down Presser Man. The idea of equal rights and justice secretes through the lines and spaces of his music. In speaking on the stage at the 1978 Peace Concert, Tosh gave the history on imperialism in Jamaican and its dangers to the progressive developments in Jamaica during the 1970’s. He spoke about this colonial “shitstem” set up by the colonial elite, “a di same bucky massa business” characterised by “black inferiority and white superiority, ruling this country for a long time”. He was also critical of some members of the Rastafari movement in other interviews. He once said that there are many imposters in the movement; and that they read Bible24/7“buttheyareagentsoflucifer”who“mekIandIlooklikecriminalsintheeyesonmen”.Hereminded the Rastafari movement of the founding principles of self-reliance and industry in Pick Myself Up. In another song he sings a similar message, “Black people arise, (because) we have been sitting in the dirt for too long; and it seems like we do not know when we are right or wrong. His criticism of the “shitstem” of mis-education was enshrined in “Yu Caan Blame Di Youth”. Tosh made the right kind of music, that which was then and still is today a powerful instrument of education.

Louis EA Moyston

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Acknowledgements

Major Contributor

• StrainsofHope,Denver,Colorado,USA

Other Generous Contributors

• Mr.BlaineDowdle,CEO,MedCannAcess,Toronto,Canada

• Mr.BaliVaswani,Jamaica

• TimelessHerbalCare,Canada

• WellnessandHealthNetwork,Jamaica

• SenatorAngelaBrownBurke,Jamaica

• PaulChang,Jamaica