Rastafarian advocate Paul Ras Simba Rock has confirmed plans to appeal a recent High Court decision that dismissed his constitutional challenge to Barbados’ cannabis laws, describing the legal grounds for the judgment as “very flimsy”.
Justice Michelle Weekes ruled in the No. 8 Supreme Court that the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act and the Sacramental Cannabis Act (SCA) are constitutional and justified on grounds of public health, safety and order. The ruling says that limiting legal sacramental cannabis use to registered tabernacles or places of worship does not violate constitutional rights to religious freedom, privacy, or protection from discrimination.
Ras Simba, represented by attorney Lalu Hanuman, argued that restricting sacramental use to official places of worship infringes on personal liberty and freedom of worship.
His challenge pointed out that the law does not allow for private home worship or consider Rastafari women, who sometimes cannot attend tabernacles and must worship at home.
Rejecting the decision, Ras Simba said he plans to take the case to the Court of Appeal and criticised the legal system for limiting fundamental rights.
“I’ve appealed the case. The grounds on which I lost are very flimsy. I’ve not had a really in-depth report on it in terms of the media. I found that very strange as well. So we going to the Supreme Court with it.”
Addressing the broader constitutional implications, he expressed frustration that Rastafarians are denied full religious freedom. He said that aside from the court’s ruling, “just denial of our full constitutional rights, you know, says a lot. So, we are left as a subsection out of the Barbadian community.”
He also said the decision affects local communities and young growers, who are forced to grow cannabis in secret.
“A win for me would have meant that probably a lot of the youngsters who had to resort to the canefields and the bushes and the various places that these plants were found… wouldn’t be growing at anybody’s homes…. And if [they] were able to plant and cultivate within the privacy of their own home, whatever amounts, I’m sure the amounts being found in the bushes and things will be lessened,” he said.
Furthermore, Ras Simba explained that the outcome directly affects other ongoing legal matters within the Rastafarian community. He revealed, “I have other brethren that were waiting on a positive outcome that have cases….They would have had cases, their own cases, and their cases were waiting on the determination of my case, right, because in these cases it was rastas that were held with a couple plants, you know, near their homes and they didn’t plead guilty.”
Justice Weekes noted in her written reasons that the court’s role is not to rewrite statutes or create new exceptions, ruling that the SCA created a specific accommodation in favour of Rastafarians that is unavailable to the general public.
(RR)
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