Harvest local foods instead of illegal drugs… St Michael West Central MP, James Paul, made this stern admonition to the University of the West Indies, in the wake of a request from a senior administrator there for the laws to be changed to allow the Cave Hill Campus to grow medicinal marijuana on farmland in St Thomas.

Pro Vice Chancellor at Cave Hill, Professor Alan Cobley, recently told a marijuana symposium that a change in the current legislation would be part of the “supporting environment” to allow research into any medicinal properties of the illegal drug.

He claims that if USA was to lead the initiative to legalise ganja, then it would look to squash all competition especially in the Caribbean much like what obtained with bananas grown in Dominica, St Vincent and St Lucia versus Dole and Chiquita industries.