The United Workers Party (UWP) condemns the Skerrit administration for failure to leverage on the billion-dollar cannabis industry. The party points out that other CARICOM states are benefiting immensely from the booming cannabis industry with thousands of jobs being created for citizens.
Steve Benjamin, PRO for the UWP, said his party had been at the forefront of the fight to legalize marijuana in Dominica since 2014. He added that the UWP managed to include the campaign in the 2018/19 budget address but till yet, Skerrit’s DLP has not risen to the occasion for the benefits of Dominica’s citizenry.
Benjamin said even though the CARICOM carried out a special research to endorse the health and economic benefits of cannabis, the present government has been dragging their feet in legalizing cannabis.
The PRO, however, revealed that the Lennox Linton led UWP party promised to decriminalize marijuana within the first 100 days in office. He added the party executive will also strive to sponsor legislation that will make cannabis into a billion-dollar industry via the creation of jobs for thousands of Dominicans.
The UWP said “within a 100 days of getting into office, we will decriminalize cannabis and then we will put the necessary legislation in place to create an industry out of cannabis products…producing and creating thousands of jobs in rural Dominica. We will give the young farmers the assistance they need in respect to greenhouse and land so that we can create wealth for our people,” Benjamin stated.
He said it is not acceptable that in 2019, a middle-aged man from Wesley could be jailed for possessing ganja because he could not pay the court. “Never again in the history of this country under the UWP government will a man go to prison for ganja; that is coming,” he swore.
According to Benjamin, Canada decriminalized cannabis in 2001 and moved further to legalize it in 2018. Jamaica decriminalized it in 2015. St. Vincent decriminalized it in 2018 and Belize in 2017. “In Dominica, the Labour Party continues to jail poor people and children for the use and possession of cannabis,” he said.
“Well let me go on the record and say that the UWP is very concerned about the failure of the Skerrit-led administration to make a positive move in the direction of legalizing cannabis. Illinois became the 11th state in the United States to legalize cannabis, and they are saying that by 2023, they are expected to create 130,000 to 160,000 jobs in the United States – so the cannabis industry is making over $30 billion.”
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
