Dear Editor,
BHARAT Jagdeo’s response to the current heightened issue of sentencing for small amounts of marijuana, was a predictable as the next piece of propaganda, emanating from Robb Street.

His pronouncements exemplified both the opportunistic and hypocritical nature of some politicians. Since when he and his party have been advocates for non-custodial sentencing for small amounts of marijuana found on persons intercepted?
In fact, Jagdeo is on record in July, 2011 at the launch of the International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD), as saying that the then government was not going to decriminalise the use of the narcotic. And as a reminder, it was during the tenure of the former PPP/C government that scores of young Guyanese became criminalised for use of the drug, as a result of custodial sentences.

This is yet another example of a particular line of deception – making demands for solutions/corrections to problems that were in existence since the period of PPP/C governance, but which were ignored despite numerous calls by activists and the Guyana Rastafarian Council for the decriminalisation of small amounts of marijuana.
We have been observing this kind of sudden holier-than-thou line, being taken by not only Jagdeo and his party, but also some well-known social commentators who seem to have only just realised that they have a voice. This is the category of persons of whom Guyanese ought to beware of; for not only did they sup at the table of state criminality, partaking in the feast of illegality, but that it rendered them ineligible to assume any moral position. As a result of their complicit behaviour they have become heavily compromised.

Yet, like the hypocrites that they have always been, and conniving, they have since 2015, been attempting to take the moral high ground; but they are easily identified. They are numbered among those who will have to face the long arm of arm of the law for crimes against the state.

Regards
Troy Garraway