Volney: Government not progressive on issue of marijuana use

Last week Volney, who was born in Montserrat and lived in Dominica prior to his move here, caused a stir at a rally hosted by the Dominica Labour Party led by prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit.

He told more than 12,000 supporters, “There is one thing I promised the youths to say tonight.

Don’t mind I was a judge, I will say it. Prime minister legalise it. Legalise it. Jamaica legalised it, let Dominica legalise it.” Contacted yesterday Volney who is a former minister of justice in the People’s Partnership administration said that he is all for the decriminalisation and even the legalisation of marijuana in this country.

“When you legalise you remove criminality, when you decriminalise you allow possession and cultivation in restricted circumstances.

“I have had the view ever since I was a judge and I saw all these young men being imprisoned for possession of very small quantities of marijuana and, as a result, destroying their chances of getting visas to travel and getting sustainable jobs locally because of having criminal records.” Volney told Newsday he has done a lot of research which suggests there is no empirical evidence that marijuana consumption is any more harmful than the consumption of alcohol.

“In fact, it is proven that there are medicinal benefits in the use of marijuana whether it be taken in the form of oils, tea or other methods of consumption.” He said there is no corresponding benefits with alcohol and can see no good reason why people should not be allowed to use small quantities of marijuana for recreational and or medicinal needs.

Asked by Newsday if he intends to advocate for Government to legalise or decriminalise marijuana here, Volney said, “I prefer to expend my energies in helping more progressive thinking governments in the region to follow the Jamaica lead. I do not hold much hope that this conservative government will consider even the issue of decriminalisation, no matter how limited, during its next 40 months of its term in office.” Volney said he is ready and willing to work with Skerrit and revealed that he has been invited by one of 12 groups in Dominica to present a paper on “the way forward with the decriminalisation of marijuana.”