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Administratively, it must cost the Government more to arrest, charge, process, and go to court for a $100.00 fine, than the fine itself. Perhaps the true worth, or lack thereof, could be better shown if the fine were quoted in US cents. And when we look at the resulting actions or inactions of the police the cost is going to be far more. When we consider that if the police are found to be culpable through their intention, negligence or administrative mishandling of the bail process I am forced to ask the question what is the value of justice?
When one considers that taxpayers may have to pay for the hiring of an independent pathologist, funeral expenses, and compensation for the victim's family, I ask what is the value of justice? And if police officers are shown to have failed to exercise due diligence or otherwise and are prosecuted, the question still is, what is the value of justice?
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...-Jamaican-life
The retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, with forty active years in the JCF at all levels, interacting with the general public, observing the changes in beliefs over the period, and being party to the enforcement efforts before, during and after the period of mandatory sentencing, comes to the position that the possession of cannabis below a certain weight should not be a crime. That it has remained for so long on our statutes as a crime, which, aside from the sentence one serves, remains on one's record "is one of the most destructive aspects", one that has "a most deleterious effect on our young people".
In support of decriminalisation for private purposes, he is of the opinion that the relations between police and citizen, in particular the poor, was flawed by our failure at Independence to inculcate within the Force "a deep respect for the individual and the individual's home, however humble". The power to enter and search a home is a power that normally should not be granted easily in legislation to the law enforcers.
"To be frank", according to a Sergeant of Police of a very large station, "for the small amount I think it costs the Government more to bring a person to court, than it costs the person. Because the paper that you write it on maybe costs more."
The officer expressed the view that ganja smoking does not of itself contribute to crime. What does is the prohibition that drives cultivation and trafficking underground. "Whatever contribution to crime is like a person plants [and] somebody comes in to steal it. That is where the crime comes in. But to say that because somebody use it they go out there and steal, I don't think that is a fact".
Chevannes Report 2001
http://www.cannabis-med.org/science/Jamaica.htm
When one considers that taxpayers may have to pay for the hiring of an independent pathologist, funeral expenses, and compensation for the victim's family, I ask what is the value of justice? And if police officers are shown to have failed to exercise due diligence or otherwise and are prosecuted, the question still is, what is the value of justice?
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...-Jamaican-life
The retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, with forty active years in the JCF at all levels, interacting with the general public, observing the changes in beliefs over the period, and being party to the enforcement efforts before, during and after the period of mandatory sentencing, comes to the position that the possession of cannabis below a certain weight should not be a crime. That it has remained for so long on our statutes as a crime, which, aside from the sentence one serves, remains on one's record "is one of the most destructive aspects", one that has "a most deleterious effect on our young people".
In support of decriminalisation for private purposes, he is of the opinion that the relations between police and citizen, in particular the poor, was flawed by our failure at Independence to inculcate within the Force "a deep respect for the individual and the individual's home, however humble". The power to enter and search a home is a power that normally should not be granted easily in legislation to the law enforcers.
"To be frank", according to a Sergeant of Police of a very large station, "for the small amount I think it costs the Government more to bring a person to court, than it costs the person. Because the paper that you write it on maybe costs more."
The officer expressed the view that ganja smoking does not of itself contribute to crime. What does is the prohibition that drives cultivation and trafficking underground. "Whatever contribution to crime is like a person plants [and] somebody comes in to steal it. That is where the crime comes in. But to say that because somebody use it they go out there and steal, I don't think that is a fact".
Chevannes Report 2001
http://www.cannabis-med.org/science/Jamaica.htm