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In his journal article 'The Law and Cannabis in the West Indies (1973)', H. Aubrey Fraser noted that between 1962 and 1972, approximately 11,140 Jamaicans were hauled before the courts for possessing ganja. Over the same period, 2,091 Jamaicans were prosecuted for smoking the herb. For possessing, smoking, cultivating and committing ganja-related crimes under the nebulous police heading 'other', 14,405 Jamaicans, mostly, if not all, men, had earned a criminal record over the first 10 years of our country gaining independence.
Between 1962 and 1972, Jamaicans were not only being criminalised at home for the weed. Scores of our countrymen were either locked up or fined for breaching the provisions of the Dangerous Drugs legislation in places such as Barbados, Dominica and Guyana, with 33 prosecuted in The Bahamas alone over the 10-year period. Perhaps perversely, only one case of cocaine use/possession (the police record didn't state which) was prosecuted in Jamaica over those 10 years, with that prosecution occurring in 1972.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/c...and-propaganda
Between 1962 and 1972, Jamaicans were not only being criminalised at home for the weed. Scores of our countrymen were either locked up or fined for breaching the provisions of the Dangerous Drugs legislation in places such as Barbados, Dominica and Guyana, with 33 prosecuted in The Bahamas alone over the 10-year period. Perhaps perversely, only one case of cocaine use/possession (the police record didn't state which) was prosecuted in Jamaica over those 10 years, with that prosecution occurring in 1972.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/c...and-propaganda