US notes that cannabis reform helps address religious discrimination in other countries
The increasing number of countries moving to repeal severe penalties against cannabis use is helping reduce religious discrimination against Rastafarians and other groups
Curation and editing by Sechat Content, with information from Marijuana Moment (Kyle Jaeger )
The increasing number of countries moving to repeal severe penalties against cannabis use is helping reduce religious discrimination against Rastafarians and other groups, noted the US Department of State in an annual report released on Wednesday (12).
But while the federal government is once again keen to outline discrimination related to cannabis in some foreign countries and territories, the latest edition of the International Religious Freedom Report refuses to acknowledge the inherent discrimination that exists in the US, where marijuana remains federally illegal.
“Religious freedom is a human right; indeed, it goes to the core of what it means to be human. To think freely, follow our conscience, change our beliefs if our hearts and minds lead us to do so, express those beliefs in public and in private,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a briefing on the report. “For many people around the world, this right is still out of reach.”
The new State Department document discusses cannabis policies in more than a dozen nations and how they intersect with religious freedoms. It includes the observation that a growing movement towards legalization and decriminalization is helping reduce the discrimination that prevailed in the past.
So here is an analysis of what the report found:
Bahamas
“Rastafarians continued to assert that the government violated their constitutional right to religious freedom by prohibiting the legal use of marijuana,” the report states. “Rastafarians said that the police continued to arrest them for carrying small amounts of marijuana used in ceremonies."
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Members of this group said that law enforcement was “disrespectful and intimidated them during detention”.
But change may be on the way. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis is supporting a policy change that would allow "possession and cultivation to Rastafarians and other religious groups that use cannabis in rituals".
The prime minister said that starting this year, people with prior convictions for marijuana possession could have their records expunged. However, this would require legislative action.
Barbados
This is another nation seeing movements to reform cannabis laws.
The government announced last year its intention to decriminalize cannabis, which would be a welcome reform for the Rastafarian community, notes the report. Still, members of this group said they “hoped that eventually new measures would allow them to grow marijuana on their farms for personal and commercial use”.
Dominica
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But “Rastafarians continued to press the government for full legalization of marijuana use. They stated that they considered decriminalization a half-measure with a commercial focus,” the report says. “Representatives of the Rastafarian community said that authorities did not enforce the law against marijuana use when the community used it in their religious rites.”
Guyana
Rastafarians “continued to argue that a law criminalizing the possession of 15 grams or more of marijuana infringed on their religious practices”. As a result, at the end of last year, the government cabinet responded by approving a decision to amend the law to remove custodial sentences for small amounts of cannabis.
Jamaica
“Rastafarians continued to report wider societal acceptance, despite ongoing negative stereotypes and stigma associated with drug use and marijuana smoking,” the report states, adding that there was significant media attention on the 75th anniversary of the late marijuana icon Bob Marley, a Rastafarian advocate whose music and rhetoric helped popularize the religion in the 1970s.
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