But we must ask ourselves the question: will decriminalization make the traditional cultivator better or worst off?
While traditional cultivators are the cornerstone of the production, distribution and the consumption of cannabis, a modern medical industry will be a disaster, unless we guarantee a satisfactory space, not only for the grower, the trafficker, the boat man, but also for the recreational smoker, who historically has always been there for the grower, by purchasing his produce, and who has played a pivotal role in bringing cannabis to where it has reached today.
They are natural allies, and, as such, has a moral and a social obligation to look out for each other, even if it requires some level of compromise from each.
You know, if we examine the issue of decriminalization with all its restrictions, the prospect of this making the traditional cultivator better or worst off here, weigh largely on the latter. Within this context are issues like age limit, where people can or cannot smoke, the issuing of licenses to sell cannabis within established rules, certain level of accommodation, etc. And there is the issue of every household being allowed to two or more plants.
Against this background, we must remember that recreational smokers go for the grade with the highest THC. High grade cannabis require high grade seeds. But seeds are expensive and are currently sourced overseas, most often beyond the reach of the ordinary grower.
This is going to hurt the pockets of the traditional cultivator, and will be potentially more threatening to our local seeds, which will now be faced with competition from the importation of foreign strains. Commercially these strains are more attractive, and can only be afforded by a privilege few, who will now have the opportunity to control the local market. The better off classes who previously would send to the BLOCKS for their weed no longer need to, since each household can now grow two plants, with the potential of producing up to three pounds per house hold. This is more than they can consume. Now they can sell their own high grade, and because they are able to afford the licensing and other requirements, will be doing so within a framework that will not be as easily accessible to the ordinary grower.
This is the model that will predominate, as it attracts the monies of the tourist, and the monied classes. What therefore should be the response of our traditional cultivator? I am certain that some of the opponents of medical cannabis are genuine and mean good, and so we must seek to identify and to reach out to those who mean well. But there are those who do so for their own selfish reasons and in an effort to keep traditional growers in subjugation. Likewise, we must seek to identify them, but expose them as traitors of traditional cultivators and enemies of progress. The traditional cultivator and the recreational smoker are allies in the struggle for cannabis reform, and in the same way that it took the unity of both stakeholders to reach this far, in the same way it will take their unity for the satisfaction of all.
Against this background, and in the best interest of both the traditional cultivator and the recreational smoker, we must navigate a way forward, bearing in mind all of the above factors.
I find that better way in the proposed bill being discussed by the Select Committee, for a non custodial sentence if caught with up to two ounces of cannabis, without contravening the UN conventions, though personally I would have preferred to see more.
Decriminalization, ultimately, must go hand in hand with fundamental socio economic changes in the society, if it to be in the best interest of the traditional cultivator.
As traditional cultivators, and guided by the surrounding circumstances relative to cannabis, we cannot just think of ourselves, but also of our own friends and allies – particular our recreational brothers and sisters.
In conclusion, I believe that this fight can best be waged by uniting our efforts at both the national and international level, that is to say, by building a strong international network, with like minded governments and NGO communities, to take the fight to the level of the UN, with the aim of reforming the conventions in the best interest of all nations and people.
STOP THE CRIMINALIZATION OF ALL NON MEDICAL USERS OF CANNABIS.
STOP THE CRIMINALIZATION OF TRADITIONAL CULTIVATORS FOR PRODUCING CANNABIS FOR NON MEDICAL USERS.
Junior Spirit Cottle
This article was originally published by a local newspaper The News on 7 December 2018.