Legalise ganja and cut crime by 40%

How will this help, you ask? Let’s say marijuana accounts for 40 percent of the illegal drug trade in this country. A Time magazine article roughly two years ago estimated that the drugs passing through the Caribbean area en route to the US to be in the vicinity of US$1 billion, with a certain percentage staying in TT and other Caribbean countries as a handling fee.

If we were to legalise marijuana, which would allow each individual here private consumption of up to 12 grams of marijuana, similar to what has been done in Mexico and Guatemala, then theoretically this should reduce the crime rate by 40 percent because there is no pay-off for the crime gangs in distributing legalised marijuana — the margins become too small.

Therefore with less cash floating around to buy guns, pay for hits, defend against other gang incursions, we should see a corresponding reduction in this criminal activity.

Why would this work, you ask? Let’s examine the last time a similar exercise was engaged in.

Remember prohibition, when alcohol was illegal? Back then there were large crime syndicates in the US involved with the manufacture and distribution of illegal alcohol throughout the US. This led to mobsters from one city attacking gangs in other cities and you had running gun battles on the streets.

That’s when Elliot Nest and his boys were trying to clean up the streets. Then alcohol was legalised and the massive network of crime throughout the US virtually shrunk to manageable levels.

I am sure the same shrinkage would happen if marijuana was legalised in TT .

So what do we have to lose? The US had the political courage to move from prohibition to legalising alcohol and it worked, so why can’t we try this here? Mexico and Guatemala have done so as part of their crime reduction strategy and from what we are now hearing, the catastrophic crime spree in Mexico is abating. Additionally, even in the US, in California, you can purchase marijuana in prescribed amounts. Something to note here: the same morally correct people who said alcohol was wrong before prohibition were some of the biggest drinkers once it became legal, so please, no hypocrisy about marijuana usage.

Furthermore, marijuana is just a stronger version of cigarettes, and/or cigars. So technically, all cigarette and cigar smokers are almost breaking the law.

So Mr AG, if we could cut our crime rate by 40 percent, wouldn’t this be worth the risk? You seem to be a person with political courage, so what’s the worst that could happen? If it doesn’t work you just revert to where we are now with the current rate of crime intact.

But what if it does work? Just think about how many lives can be saved? Again I ask, do we have the courage to make a change?

Roger Gordon Cascade