Dear Editor
WE talk about creating jobs and having Guyanese be self-sufficient, yet law enforcement is going around arresting ganja growers with an automatic three years for a non-violent crime. An 18-year-old was also arrested [and given] a three-year sentence in the same breath.

In an industry that generates over 50,000 jobs globally, we need to wake up, get out of our 1920s mindset, stop depending on the prospects of oil to be the saviour of an already resource-rich country and look to implement regulation or perhaps even the legalisation of hemp and its sister product, marijuana. With over dozens of by-products including clothing, paper, beauty products, hemp oil and seeds which are rich in vitamin A and B and omega fatty acids and versatile textiles such as rope and building materials, we are literally sleeping on a gold mine of “green” materials, which go in hand with our “going green” initiative. Or are we going to wait again for foreign interest and investment within this industry before we consider making a move?

We keep wondering why Guyana’s crime rate is up when people are out here hungry, starving, looking for a way to make ends meet. Many are without resources, connections or a proper education and we keep arresting them for petty crimes instead of addressing real issues such as lack of adequate skills, resources or education. Cannabis and hemp alike have proven medicinal benefits and healing properties when compared to alcohol which in many cases are the cause of numerous deaths, murders and accidents due to over consumption. You cannot incarcerate the masses, not provide a plan to create jobs, then wonder why the country is in shambles. Legalizing the naturally grown plant won’t have any more adverse effects than the over consumption of an 80-proof bottle of rum would have within Guyana.

Regards
Stephanie Persaud