Dear Editor
In the Stabroek News of October 4 2017 a letter appeared captioned ‘What is causing the delay in changing the law to allow the cultivation of industrial hemp?’ We the executive and members of the Lokono Hemplyne Enterprise, formerly St Cuthbert’s Hemp Cultivation group, would like to add our voices to urge President David Granger and his APNU+AFC administration to swiftly remove the legislative barriers for the cultivation of hemp and the manufacture of over 25,000 hemp products.
We at the Lokono Hemplyne Enterprise based at St Cuthbert’s Mission, now Pakuri Village, are of the opinion that the establishment of a hemp industry in the village will promote employment for the residents, so many of them will not leave the community seeking employment in the gold, diamond and forestry areas, as well as other places in Guyana. We are looking to prevent the drift of population from the village.
The village is blessed with hundreds of acres of fertile lands not being utilized, and we want to plant hemp so as to build the community’s economy. We also have the blessing of our hardworking Toshao Lennox Shuman and his team of councillors, who are supporting the establishment of an industrial hemp industry in Guyana.
Our group has already begun to clear lands for the for the cultivation of other crops until hemp is regularized, and we call on the APNU+AFC administration to grant us permission to undertake a 100 acre trial project which state agencies could monitor.
Another issue for our group is that we applied to the Cooperative Department of the Ministry of Social Protection to be registered as an association, only to be informed after submitting all the necessary documents and paying fees that it couldn’t be done, because hemp is illegal, but we still registered it as a business name at the Commercial Registry.
Editor, an industrial hemp industry will provide large-scale employment at all income levels, build our economy, create new industries and eradicate poverty.
Are we only waiting for the oil and gas industry while the economy goes down?
Yours faithfully,
Lemond Adrian
Chairman