While it says it is not calling for the indiscriminate smoking of marijuana to be legalised, the Inter-Religious Organization of Guyana (IROG) has urged government to consider comprehensive law reform to recognise and respect their religious rights.
In a release issued last Saturday, the IROG noted the recent protest by members of the Rastafarian community outside the office of the Attorney General (AG), calling for government to “urgently” amend the laws to “recognize and respect their religious and cultural rights.”
Just under a month ago, members of the Rastafarian community continued to protest for the suspension of jail sentences for the possession of small amounts of cannabis, along with its use being respected as a religious right for its members.
Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall SC, who engaged with the protestors at one of the protests, told them that Guyana’s legal system does not operate in a way that would allow for the suspension of the law. The AG explained that another law has to be passed to amend or repeal the law completely. “We have decided the process of an amendment but until that amendment is passed the current law will be enforced. That is how the law is,” he said.
The AG further told the group that the government had already tabled a bill to reform the law in the National Assembly, while boasting that it has so far been the only government to have addressed the issue in that manner.
“We took a bill in the Parliament but unfortunately we did not have an agreement on the quantum that is to carry non-custodial sentences. We do not believe in a process that is unilateral, we believe that in every aspect of public decision-making… we must act consensually and we must act after consulting the stakeholders,” Nandlall told the gathering.
He had further advised that a Special Select Committee which will be tasked with reviewing the bill will invite members of the Rastafarian community in due course to make submissions and representations as it deliberates the issue.
The IROG in its release said that the Rastafarian community believes that cannabis “is the tree of life” spoken of in the Bible, and that “it possesses the spirit of God like the tree that Moses encountered on the mountain.”
The release went on to say that the Vedas also recognises cannabis as one of five sacred plants.
The IROG notes that through the Guyana Rastafari Council (GRC), the Rastafarian community has been a member of its organisation for the past 15 years, while adding that Rastafarianism was recognised by the United Nations in 2008 as one of the five main faiths in Guyana.
It further notes that in 2017 a United Nations Expert Working Group reported that Rastafari was being discriminated against and recommended the government initiate legal reforms at addressing the cultural and religious rights of the Rastafarian community.
Furthermore, the release adds that the United States Embassy had invited a representative from the GRC to make a presentation at a forum on religious tolerance held at the Embassy.
According to the IROG, the Embassy subsequently reported to the US State Department in its Guyana 2019 International Religious Freedom Report that the law criminalising the possession of marijuana continues to infringe the religious practices of the Rastafarian community.
“While the IROG is not calling for indiscriminate smoking of marijuana to be legalised, it calls on the government to consider comprehensive law reform to recognise and respect the religious rights of the Rastafari community,” the release added.
