not so fast!

While some research indicates that marijuana use for medicinal purposes can be beneficial, one medical practitioner believes that more research needs to be done before going forward with the legalisation process.

Dr. P Abdon DaSilva, 3rd Vice President of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) and President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP), made this clear as he delivered a lecture at the Grande Salle recently, titled “Medical Marijuana: A Trade Union Perspective.”

He revealed that based on research done in the United Kingdom, a small number of persons stand to benefit from the legalisation of medical marijuana, and it is against this backdrop that he asked persons to seriously question and consider that the number of people that would benefit in Barbados would be significantly smaller.

Additionally, there are no long-term studies that supported the benefits of the use of medicinal marijuana, he pointed out.

In response to a question by a member in the audience, DaSilva made it clear that the BAMP has no official position on the legalisation of the use of medicinal cannabis, however, he stated that BAMP started the national discourse of medicinal marijuana over a year ago at a lecture.

DaSilva went on to note that at this lecture, persons revealed that they were using marijuana, and the BAMP made the Ministry of Health aware of this fact. However, they did not receive a letter of acknowledgement or recognition of receipt of such letter.

Furthermore, the medical practitioner noted that BAMP has no idea which direction the Ministry of Health and the Government will be taking in terms of legalising medicinal cannabis, and as a result, their approach would be reactionary instead of proactive, as they would like.

However, DaSilva is of the belief that most of the Governments would take the lead from a CARICOM research paper he read, which stated that people should be allowed to grow marijuana in their backyards for medicinal purposes.