The Anguilla Progressive Movement Government is now pursuing a campaign promise, regarding the limited use of marijuana, to provide some easement for persons from the rigours of the criminal justice system.
The island’s Minister of Social Development and Education, Ms. Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers, has disclosed that the Government is exploring the possibility of legalizing the use of small amounts of the drug. She in fact says that the Executive Council has approved a policy to that effect as a precursor to the necessary draft legislation.
Speaking on the radio program, “Talk Anguilla”, by Keithstone Greaves, the Minister said on Wednesday, November 25:
“We have just approved the policy in the Executive Council for the approval of the decriminalization of marijuana. We are now moving towards the drafting of the legislation which will provide the teeth to the decriminalization policy. It is an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act to ensure that those persons who use marijuana are not taken straight to the criminal justice system.”
She added: “I must make a caveat because I know that some persons will say marijuana is free for everybody to use as much as they can. That is not what decriminalization does. It is the removal of the sanction up to a threshold amount. It is a very important threshold that applies. If you are found with over the threshold amount, you can still engage the criminal justice system. It is under the threshold amount where you won’t engage the criminal justice system.
“In the policy, there is a discussion about the threshold amount being 20 grams. We are still in conversations with community partners about what they think is the best amount. It is not in the law yet, but it is part of the policy.”
During the Radio Anguilla interview, the Minister prefaced her remarks by stating the present situation on the island, relating to the availability and use of marijuana.
“The possession, cultivation, distribution and sale of marijuana/cannabis are illegal in Anguilla”, she stated. “That is following from the international and regional frameworks that provide a prohibition against the distribution, sale and use of marijuana in member state countries. There are currently four UN Conventions that apply to Anguilla, by extension of our relationship to the United Kingdom. [The Conventions] determine what type of relationship we can have with the use, sale and distribution of cannabis.”
The Minister continued: “Anguilla, by virtue of being a British Overseas Territory, has a number of these Conventions applying to her. In the Misuse of Drugs Act in Anguilla there is a provision preventing the possession of marijuana, and creating an offense to have in your possession certain drugs which are in the schedule attached to the Act – marijuana being one of them.
“This is where we are right now. We have been working on creating a difference – a policy that deals with the decriminalization of marijuana…Decriminalisation is removing the criminal sanction from persons who have been found in possession of marijuana. It means that, if you find me, with a certain quantity of the drug, the action you take is not to take me to the courthouse. That is what the process currently provides for. The Misuse of Drugs Act makes it illegal once you are found with marijuana in your possession. You are arrested, charged, taken to the criminal justice system, and you now have a legal sanction on your criminal record. Decriminalization is a process for removing that.
“That process is no longer the way that we see it going forward. We have an alternative structure [a legislative framework] to remove that criminal sanction, corrupt process…Under the legalization framework I can plant, grow, reap, package and sell. Under legalization, all prohibitions are removed. That process is regulated so that those who supply the drug will have a legal framework to which they have to comply with. Regulation is the process of making sure that you grow a certain quantity…It has a certain quality standard and all that will all happen under legalization.”
The Minister stressed that Anguilla cannot go to the full extent of legalizing marijuana due to the UN Conventions to which the UK Government and Anguilla, as a British Overseas Territory, have signed on to.
She went on: “There are now representations that can be made to the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. There is a body of literature available which shows that there is now a movement away globally from the strict regulation of marijuana as a substance. Where we are now in Anguilla, is that legalization is not allowed under the UN Conventions so therefore we cannot legalize marijuana.”
She stated, therefore, that the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana was being looked into by the Government of Anguilla.
