Barbados risks undermining its ability to repay multi-million-dollar development loans if it fails to address the dangers posed by increasingly potent cannabis circulating locally, independent Senator the Reverend Canon Dr John Rogers has warned. He called for urgent regulation of the drug’s strength amid concerns about declining national productivity and a potential public health crisis.
In Wednesday’s debate in the Senate on resolutions under the Special Loans Act, Senator Rogers voiced concern about what he described as a growing societal threat posed by marijuana abuse, even in the face of the government’s plan to develop a local marijuana industry.
“I want to speak about what is relevant to these two resolutions when I ask, who will repay these Bills?” he questioned. “Because one of the challenges that we are having in our society now—and public figures have been referencing it—is the use of marijuana by our people. It is too prevalent in our society.”
Senator Rogers clarified that he did not oppose the passage of the medicinal cannabis or sacramental cannabis Bills in the Senate. However, he stressed that his long-standing plea for regulation of cannabis potency had been ignored.
“We have not set a threshold for the potency of cannabis on our streets, and that is where the danger comes,” he said. “It is not about the quantity—14 grammes or anything like that—it is about the potency of THC.”
Back in April, the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Alliston Seale, firmly linked the rise in violent crime in Barbados to marijuana use, and voiced strong opposition to any move to legalise the drug. Echoing those concerns, Senator Rogers noted that other professionals have raised red flags, including a Queen Elizabeth Hospital medical doctor who warned about prenatal and early childhood exposure to marijuana.
“Our National Council on Substance Abuse has also recently flagged concerns about new psychoactive substances, including synthetic cannabis,” the senator pointed out.
Calling for urgent regulation, Senator Rogers warned: “Please, set a threshold for the potency of THC on our streets. If we do not do that, all these loans that we are preparing now to build up our country—you’re going to have people who are not productive enough to repay them.”
He cited the example of Godfather OG, a potent cannabis hybrid which he said contains 34 per cent THC, compared to the 0.3 per cent limit set under US federal guidelines.
“Nobody knows what they’re smoking, not even the ones smoking it, and so we need to set and crack down on this problem before we have an opioid crisis. As much as I support this development. We have to look at society in general and ask ourselves, are we building up in one place and destroying in another just by negligence,” he stressed. (SB)
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