Marijuana in Jamaica

JAMAICA’S legislators have approved the amendment of the Dangerous Drugs Act to facilitate the decriminalisation of possession of small amounts of ganja.

The announcement was made by Justice Minister Mark Golding during a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kingston yesterday.

“Cabinet has approved certain changes to the law relating to ganja. These relate to the possession of small quantities of ganja for personal use, the smoking of ganja in private places and the use of ganja for medical/medicinal purposes,” Golding said.

He also announced that Cabinet had also approved the decriminalisation of ganja for religious use and said he hoped the law would be amended by early September.

Golding’s announcement came on the heels of recent calls by the Opposition for individuals who are held smoking a spliff to not be given a criminal record.

With the proposed changes, people caught in…

Jamaica Kincaid at Calabash Photo by DJ Miller

This year’s Calabash audience had the rare opportunity of hearing from the immensely talented Jamaica Kincaid – first in an amusing reading from her latest book, and then in a insightful and engaging conversation with Kwame Dawes. The interchange included Kincaid’s description of the impact the Concise Oxford Dictionary had on her, as the only thing she had to read – punishment handed down to her seven-year-old self to copy out pages of “Paradise Lost” – passing comment on  letters to the Corinthians from “the constipated Paul” – and her request for a picture of the Calabash audience, which she said included the most black people she had ever seen at a reading, proving that black people do read (and write!)

I was also honoured to have been asked to participate in the celebration of this year’s featured book at Calabash 2014…