By John Denny

Observer Reporter

(Basseterre, St. Kitts) – The Federation’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Martin has suggested the decriminalization of marijuana stating that the current legal prohibition of the drug is an unnecessary drain on the country’s resources.

This idea is in line with growing sentiments in the U.S., especially since the heightened border violence between the U.S. and Mexico from illegal marijuana cartels.

The CMO made the statement at a recent forum on Men and Marijuana last week

“The use of marijuana has been criminalized, and as a criminal offense it occupies the resources of the state in eradication, apprehension, prosecution and medical care,” he said. “Men are using it, so are women, boys and girls. The misuse is costing us resources. I cannot quantify it at this time because it has not been quantified, but I can qualify it by saying that it is costing us resources in terms of personal time, personnel time and medication costs, but I must use this opportunity to tell the forum the number one substance causing us a problem is alcohol and number two is prescription drugs.”

Availability is not the cause of misuse of cannabis, Dr. Martin said. “The factors that drive the young people to use are: Mental illness in the parent, a violent or abusive parent, and a substance abusing parent. One, two and three push factors for young people in this country, and the Caribbean.”

He compared decriminalization with distributing condoms

“Our data shows that when you liberalize the availability of condoms, young people did not have more sex,” he said. “The factors that protect children, prevent them, inoculate them immune them are: One, connectedness to a religious order; Two, connectedness to a parent or family. I thought it was the other way around the first time I read it, that it was the parent-family cohesion that kept the children together, but it was actually the spiritual values.”

“My advice has been and will continue to be, that the misuse of marijuana is a public health issue. It is my view that the misuse of marijuana, like the misuse of cocaine, Viagra, Valium and alcohol is a health issue. In other words the misuser needs health intervention. The criminal justice intervention does not help the user,” said Dr. Martin. “I am willing to work with the bone fide Rastafarian community…to move the agenda forward towards decriminalization because we are consuming too many resources doing the other thing.”

A new approach in attitude and perception is needed in addressing the issue and according to the CMO the new attitude is to deal with substance abuse as a health issue instead of a legal issue.

The forum was hosted by the Department of Gender Affairs and the panel included a police officer, a Magistrate, a psychiatrist and members of the Rastafarian Community