Cannabis has had an unfair reputation for many decades. Since the 50s anti-marijuana propaganda spread unscientific facts about cannabis which includes being told that marijuana is addictive, a gateway drug, and is all round immoral because it causes laziness and free thought in the youth – the greatest of sins. The reality is, many of these notions have been debunked both by scientists and by practice from recent research. There are so many high functioning cannabis users who even smoke weed for reasons beyond recreational. People who suffer from chronic pain and don’t want to get addicted to drugs – the real kind of addictive drugs that are often prescribed by a doctor – smoke marijuana. People who suffer from anxiety, depression, PTSD and so many other mental problems smoke marijuana, and it helps. In the past four years alone money has been pumped into scientific research about the medicinal purposes of marijuana that has totally debunked the reefer madness of the past that pushed anti-marijuana propaganda. So now tell me, is it really so immoral to smoke marijuana or is it immoral to criminalise and ruin the lives of many young people for trying to fix themselves?

What is the moral dilemma of marijuana? Reality check: there is none.

Colorado, the cannabis pioneering US state has been breaking so many records with commercialising and taxing thoroughly the legalised marijuana industry. So why is it, in T&T when we not only know that we have a booming marijuana industry, why haven’t we legalised and taken advantage of a major revenue source that can be quickly developed?

The marijuana underworld – not what you would imagine

There is a strange side to marijuana that many people haven’t seen. It’s neither seedy and dark, nor is it dangerous or violent. It’s much a world of survival and kinship that is fostered in this underground marijuana culture. Here young professionals who have been working their ass off since they were eight-years-old to survive find solace in a spliff, and for fifteen minutes their world slows down and they can actually think about their life. Usually they are working so hard they don’t get the chance to reflect and relax. As hard as it is for the older generation to understand, millennials – from all over the world, but specifically in T&T, are always plugged in and pumping. There isn’t a day that we aren’t bombarded by emails hours after we’ve left the office. There isn’t a moment where we feel comfortable enough to let our guard down and relax without worrying about our performance.

Reality check: we’ve been this way since we’ve had to write Common Entrance and SEA because we were told by our most trusted adults that failure wasn’t good enough.

Our society tells our students from a very young age that we must always be perfect to succeed. For those of us who do and have, can you blame us for wanting to lift that weight off for a little while? Success isn’t our reward, it’s a daunting standard that we’ve been told we have to always keep, and it’s impossible for us to do that.

You know what happens when that weight is lifted? Those same brilliant people create works that’s beyond spectacular because their mind gets the healthy rest it needs. The underworld of marijuana is filled with young people who wear suits or kitten heels every day and drag on a joint before and or after they go to work. They are the ones who dive deep into their laptops and don’t submerge for air until their deliverables are met. They are the ones who have and will keep the country running because that’s all we’ve ever known – that internal eternal pump. We work hard. I’m not surprised many of us smoke hard too. That’s how we survive. (And let’s be real, many middle age to senior citizens smoke marijuana just as much.)

So here’s my (iedo)Logical Economic Argument for the Legalisation and Commercialisation of Marijuana  

2016 is almost over, and we’ve had oil woes, roti woes and some really messed up financing in the public service, to name a few. Yet in the midst of our Prime Minister and Opposition Leader going at each other’s throats as a distraction from the true disaster which is the fiscal year of 2016-2017, indulge in an alternative universe where marijuana is legal and I imagine certain sectors would improve.

The justice system

Our prison system is clogged with many young people who are charged with minor drug possession charges. These charges are usually non-violent and committed by people who genuinely want to mellow out. (That’s the whole point of weed.)

Radical idea how about we employ these people, who probably know more about weed than the police do, and have them as merchants. As a way for them to work off their sentence or to expedite their sentence, they can take part in a necessary business class where they learn things like filing taxes, keeping books and how to order and account for stock.

We already have people growing and improving both the agriculture and the marijuana industry’s technology. Lest we forget the student who was arrested near UWI for growing his own high grades through an aquaponic system. Though underground and illegal, T&T has a potential workforce (who consist of both the employed and the unemployed,) that have the skill, the knowledge of the business, the strain expertise and in the case of the highly skilled, qualified and educated, we can create booming businesses out of the cannabis industry. With some creativity and open mindedness towards a local weed amnesty, we may not need to invest as much capital expenditure to grow the business.

WPC Danielle Ashe sorts through marijuan trees which were seized yesterday from the apartment of chemistry student from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. The value of the drug was estimated at $500,000. PHOTO BY: JEFF MAYERS courtesy the T&T Guardian

The biggest problem coming out of the marijuana industry is the gang warfare and violence that comes from people protecting their drug blocks. The criminalisation of marijuana has in itself created a problem in society that is both bloody and understandable. If there is no longer a war on drugs, then there will be no need for drug lord foot soldiers who senselessly carry out crime. Am I being idealistic? Yes. Does it make this fact any less true? No. The war on drugs has created exactly that – a war. People both innocent and not so innocent are being killed over drug territories, and our legal and justice systems failing because it’s a problem that they don’t know how to control. If we stop fighting those people who are seeking self-medication, provide the necessary and fully functioning mental services needed to treat those with addiction problems, and stopped acting like marijuana (and drug consumption) was an abominable crime, then we should see a decrease in the crime rate.

Just imagine how much more pumping and profitable the Avenue would be if there was a space provided for people to get stoned legally. Just imagine how many rapists and murderers can be convicted faster if the court wasn’t clogged with minor drug offences that ruin the lives of young people who then become unemployable and often forced to turn to crime to survive. Just imagine if our criminal justice system transformed and pumped out business owners instead of creating gang members from within the remand yard. The potential for transformative restorative justice and economic growth exists. Why haven’t our leaders sought after it? Are they afraid of losing votes, because I for one and I know many young people like me who are exasperated with our current government leaders, who will gladly vote for any party that legalises weed. So why haven’t we?

Tourism

Radical idea: how about we turn Magdalena into a weed resort? Colorado’s tourism industry is in full bloom because of their marijuana industry. Though Jamaica legalised marijuana last year, they are sticking to fully commercialise it. This leaves T&T with the chance to become the weed capital of the Caribbean – a definite tourist destination. Seriously, our beaches are pathetic compared to Barbados – no Maracas is not a haven, it’s an over glorified death trap that’s only merit is bake and catfish. Let’s stop pretending things aren’t what they actually are. And our service sector sucks – especially in Tobago. We actually need something that sets us apart in Caribbean tourism.

Let’s have random canna-cafes around both Trinidad and Tobago. For major liming spots in Trinidad like the Avenue, we have coffee houses and bars where people can go to consume weed and the necessary support services like on call taxies if people need a drop home, or 24 hour food for munchies. Our business owners and investors can then hire many of the people who went through the cannabis business training camp to tend to these businesses.

In Tobago now, we turn Magdalena into a weed resort. I bet our rooms will be booked out all year long. We have similar cafes and bars in Tobago for the tourists who are not staying at Magdalena, and boom, we have a thriving tourism industry. Am I oversimplifying it? Yes, but logically we have been doing the same things over and over again, and T&T has no competitive edge over any other Caribbean country. But with canna-tourism on the rise, why not jump on that train and ride it to the bank? Never in the history of a nation did the words Sandals save our economy was muttered by Caribbean people. Many of these resorts like Sandals does very little for the country they have their hotels in. Typically the locals get low paying job and the resorts itself has everything a tourist needs for their vacation, so they will have little need to spend money in local owned enterprises. While the Magdalena as it stands right now can in no way can compete with a Sandals, a marijuana resort can bring in way more money and have us seriously and viably compete in the Caribbean tourism industry.

Remember this? A UNC supporter at a political rally when the People’s Partnership was in power in 2014. Photo courtesy the T&T Guardian

Many people are being retrenched, cost of living is up and we don’t have much money to pay off our reoccurring expenditure like public servants’ salaries. Worrying as that is already, the rhetoric coming from our leaders is equally concerning. Though I am not disagreeing that we have to be worried, I hear one of three things coming out of our esteemed Prime Minister’s mouth: doom and gloom dread that borders on disparaging onto the citizens for wanting to maintain a certain standard of living,  an uncomfortable conversation about borrowing from the IMF that has everyone concerned, and lastly and most annoyingly, a vitriolic political platform rhetoric of extreme hate and blame lobbied against the Opposition Leader and the rest of the UNC. Warranted or not (and lbr it is warranted), this blame game the Prime Minister likes to conduct does nothing to inspire confidence or improve the state of the economy in T&T. What we need right now is a creative idea that takes low cost to establish and be a success quickly.

I’m not much of an economist. I, much like you the reader, am a frustrated citizen who is seeing our country quickly deteriorate for so many more reasons than just money, but inevitably, that’s what we need right now. So I, a lay lady of economics and a general citizen am asking, seriously, why haven’t we legalised marijuana and capitalise on the world’s fastest growing economy?

Our esteemed Minister of Finance believes in taxing the people to regain revenue. The profits earned from taxing marijuana will make the price of weed per ounce more valuable than the price of oil per barrel.