By Jolly Green

When
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph E Gonsalves gave the information that Ganga
amnesty was coming soon while speaking on Hot 97 FM on December 24th,
2019, most intelligent listeners coupled that information with what
most of us believe is yet another pre-election gimmick.

Saboto
Caesar was responding to a question from opposition Member of
Parliament for North Leeward, Roland 'Patel' Matthews. In May, this
year, Caesar, who piloted the amnesty bill, told parliament that it
was to be made operational in early June of 2019 as SVG moved further
ahead in establishing its medical marijuana industry. The amnesty
bill was passed in parliament in December of 2018, it was said to
help traditional marijuana growers to benefit from the Medicinal
Marijuana Industry

At
the time, in a commentary I asked the question of how we know once
the Ganga is exported what it will be used for." Because once it
is in Canada or elsewhere, where the use of Ganga for personal usage
is now legal, how do we not know all and sundry are not just smoking
it.

In
SVG the Act provides for granting an amnesty to those involved in
cannabis cultivation contrary to Section 8 of the Drug Prevention and
Misuse Act, and any other relevant enactments, who may otherwise be
liable to criminal prosecution for certain criminal offenses and
other proceedings under that Act or pertinent other proceedings
enforced.

The
regulations had been drafted, and they were slated to be gazetted on
or before June 3rd and fully operational on, or before, June 3rd,
2019. But they have been delayed and delayed while during this time
numerous people have been prosecuted under the old law. The
conclusion is once again, the delay has come about because the
government is holding back so as it can coincide with the calling of
elections. Of course, that ruse has been seen through by a lot of us,
including one of the few intelligent Vincentian lawyers like Connel
Grant. The question was asked in one online news media "Was
Grant Connell right that Ganga amnesty would coincide with general
elections?"

For not
yet implementing the law, they have blamed the police saying, or
inferring, they at the moment are too stupid to administer the new
laws and would require intensive training. 

On
Christmas Eve day 2019, Prime Minister Gonsalves told Hot 97 FM that
many administrative things “have to be put in place properly to
make sure that when the amnesty is enacted that we correspond with
everything to roll it out in a proper way.”

But what
we the people have to suffer is not the Ganga laws because the
majority of us have never used it and will never use it. What we have
to suffer are the lies, innuendos, and bent truths, as if we are
children unable to accept or understand the real situation.

The very
latest from Gonsalves is that the Medical marijuana licenses they
have granted have not been paid for. The government has only received
$5 million of the $15 million we were previously told they had
collected. According to Gonsalves the licensees cannot send SVG the
money they owe because the banking system will not allow them to. But
once again that is bent truth, perhaps there are difficulties. But
the real problem is that the Marijuana market has collapsed in the US
and Canada. As the British Broadcasting Service wrote and broadcast,
“The Bubble Has Burst.”

The BBC
said;

“More
than a year ago, Canada made recreational cannabis legal. So why are
people still buying it on the black market?

When
Canada legalized marijuana just over a year ago, it seemed like
anyone who was anyone wanted to break into the market.

The
media nicknamed the frenzy Canada’s “green rush,” as investors
like Snoop Dogg and the former head of Toronto’s police force
clamored to get a slice of the multi-billion-dollar-pie.

But like
the gold rush of the 1850s, the luster would soon fade, leaving
prospectors in the dust.

“It
didn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that these stocks were
trading on fantasy and not on fundamentals,” says Jonathan Rubin,
CEO of New Leaf Data Services.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50664578

It
appears that the users can buy the product cheaper from illegal
sources than from government licensed shops and outlets. 

What the
ULP government does is a copy or emulation of what others do or say.
They have always been incapable of coming up with their own ideas. So
they are still at the back of the crowd, never in front, never the
forerunners. Having left the marijuana matter for so many years, the
crowd in front of them may have had some success, while they once
again will be left bathing in failure. 

But
failure is something they dare not mention with the coming elections;
failure is a negative word. So we are fed once again a mixture of
half-truths and lies. Well, I, for one, am fed up with all the lies,
lies about just about everything. If not lie’s, it’s half-truths,
which to me are worse than downright lies. Because half-truths are
sown solely for deception, discreetly and conspiratly cloaked in a
little truth to trick and decieve.

So where
from here? That is a difficult question to answer. Because most of
the people who were granted licenses by this grossly business
ignorant ULP Government were new start-up companies with little or no
assets except the new license from SVG, companies that were relying
on foreign investors buying stock in those companies. Now that the
market has crashed, many investors will have lost their investment.
Other investors who were considering investing will hold back, likely
never invest in Ganga. 

In
many parts where personal use of marijuana use is now legal, people
can legally grow their marijuana in their gardens. It may be that we
should make the drug legal for all purposes and allow everyone to
grow what they want, and use it at will.

They
made it legal to use all drugs in Portugal, and since then, drug
users and abusers have dropped by about 75%. Portugal decriminalized
the use of all drugs in 2001. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it --
Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of
these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. The drugs
were still illegal, of course. But now getting caught with them meant
a small fine and maybe a referral to a treatment program -- not jail
time and a criminal record. Gonsalves Ganga law stipulates a $500
fine for possession of a very small amount. That is much more than
most will be able to afford, and once again is the ULP government
trying to earn from others misfortune.

The
growing smoking and trading in cannabis in Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines is a tradition which has gone on fairly openly for longer
than any living man can remember. It should continue as a tradition
and not be used by our government to obtain money or to punish our
citizens for. After all many lawyers including Ralph Gonsalves have
earned their living from it for years, by defending those captured
for growing, dealing, trading, transporting, and using it.

To
make it completely legal In SVG, will free up the police to do real
police work, and may even save the figures having to be massaged to
try and prove to us pre-election that the SVG police are beating
crime, which in my opinion is just a bunch more lie’s.

This
year I have seen many nastier violent crimes than ever before, we the
people are living among it. So to try and tell us it’s not
happening, or happening less, questions our whole sensibility.

We
must demand the truth; even withholding the truth can be equated to
telling us a lie.

P.S.
Just put this in your search engines ‘Ralph Gonsalves, I
sometimes tell lies’

Jolly
Green, hurt me with the truth, but never comfort me with a lie.

Watch out the election is about, watch out and beware of false words and false offerings.

DISCLAMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com