DUE to the increasing regional interest in marijuana use, the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards (SLBS), yesterday, launched a National Ad Hoc Mirror Committee on Cannabis. This committee will participate in work for the adoption of international standards for Cannabis. Many people around the world have been calling for either the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. Others would prefer that it remain illegal, appalled that any one would suggest its legalization. There are prophesies that the legalization of marijuana would ‘zombify’ society, and there are prophesies that it would serve as a ‘healing to the nation’ instead.
Perhaps a time will come when people will be astonished to learn that marijuana was ever illegal in the first place. Some people today are surprised to learn that even coffee was banned in certain places in the beverages during the historical alcohol prohibitions. Friday nights could hardly past. Certain clergymen even went as far as to proclaim that coffee was satanic. If the ban on coffee was still in effect today, there would probably be people in prison doing time for selling coffee beans. Organized crime once upon a time took on the responsibility of distributing alcoholic beverages during the historical alcohol prohibitions. Friday nights could hardly be conceived nowadays without a bit of alcohol.
The parliament of Turkey only a few years ago lifted a ban which forbade women lawmakers from wearing trousers in the assembly. And people in Saudi Arabia were only recently allowed to celebrate Valentines Day, because for a long time it was not considered to be in keeping with Islamic teachings. All these laws have been imposed by people who have taken the responsibility of deciding what is good, and what is not good for others. The alteration, or reversal of those laws are usually brought on by those who decide for themselves what is good, and what is not good for them. A lot of the rules of the past are looked upon today as trivial and nonsensical, and a lot of the rule of the present time may just as well be considered ridiculous by future generation. So… is it now the time for St. Lucia to decide that just because marijuana is illegal it does not mean that it is bad? We probably will not have to wait as long as we did for our coffee beans to find out.