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Barbados Underground

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Idle Agricultural Land: Do Marijuana Growers Have a Praedial Larceny Problem?

The following article was submitted by Peter Webster to the Nation newspaper and is yet to be published – Barbados Underground The article titled “Let Farmers use idle land” in the Sunday Sun 24.09.17 which claimed that “marijuana growers were constantly taking advantage of unused plantation land left bare by privileged plantation owners” is misleading…

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The following article was submitted by Peter Webster to the Nation newspaper and is yet to be published – Barbados Underground
The Agriculture sector continues to be in a state of drift under the leadership of Minister of Agriculture David Estwick and CEO of the Barbados Agricultural Society James Paul.

The article titled “Let Farmers use idle land” in the Sunday Sun 24.09.17 which claimed that “marijuana growers were constantly taking advantage of unused plantation land left bare by privileged plantation owners” is misleading social mischief. Barbados produces very little marijuana, probably less than five acres per year. Most is imported. The facts are:

  1. There are currently more than 1,000 acres of idle, uncultivated, small (less than 10 acre) agricultural lots in Barbados. Not just plantation lands are idle. Why?
  2. Most farmers in Barbados suffer from a lack of water (rain and or irrigation) to grow their food and vegetable crops other than those planted in September to November;
  3. The Minister of Agriculture once asked a stakeholders meeting of farmers what their problems were. They unanimously responded that their major problems were “praedial” larceny, “praedial” larceny and “praedial” larceny… What has this government done about praedial larceny? Do the marijuana growers have a praedial larceny problem?
  4. Sugar cane and grass for forage are the only large, field scale crops that can otherwise be grown and they are currently financial losers with an uncertain future. If we could fix the problems of the large field scale crops we would not have any idle land;
  5. The Barbados food and vegetable crop market is limited and this limits the acreage that can be grown in these crops. That is why food and vegetable crops often encounter saturated markets, with the farmers suffering financial losses;
  6. The Government managed plantation lands of the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) and the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) have been targeted by the marijuana growers as much as the so called “privileged plantation owner lands” and those Government managed lands suffer as much, if not more so, from praedial larceny as any others. The marijuana growers look for the least secure areas;
  7. The foremost idle plantation lands in Barbados are under judicial management. Are those lands privileged?
  8. Marijuana growers have such a lucrative market that they are prepared to cart buckets of water to any hidden nook and cranny, with little regard to cost, in order to grow their high value marijuana and they are not just targeting idle lands but have also used plots within cultivated (sugar cane) fields;
  9. They may be lots of people wanting land to farm in Barbados, but it is a myth that there are lots of “farmers” in Barbados waiting to get agricultural land to cultivate. The results of Government “land lease” and failed “land for landless” projects is that four out of every five (80%) of those so called “farmers” have failed.
  10. The problem with leasing agricultural land in Barbados is that there is no civil justice. The last land owner who needed to remove a tenant took 17 years before the court and high costs to do so.

126 responses to “Idle Agricultural Land: Do Marijuana Growers Have a Praedial Larceny Problem?”

  1. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    You should do what the Israeli’s do after each bris in north america they have the mohel send the foreskin back home so it can be buried in the earth to see if they can grow a bigger prick than WW.

  2. Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim. Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim.

    Facts:

    Gov’t controls 60% of cane-producing lands through BADMC

    Private growers control 40% of cane-producing lands

    Gov’t produces 40% of our sugar

    Private growers produce 60% of our sugar.

    Gov’e spends BDS$250 of tax-payers money to produce a tonne of cane.

    Private growers spend about $150 to produce a tonne of cane.

    Since colonial times, gov’t controls 100% of the sugar resale market by law, private growers are paid whatever gov’t decides up to 12 months after their cane has been produced and delivered to the gov’t-controlled factory.

    Gov’t sells our premium brown sugar on the world commodities market.

    Sugar cane is a grass that functions as a rotation crop for food on a 4 or 5 year cycle. Without sugar there can be no large-scale food production.

    So, as I’ve typed many times before, taxpayers are already subsidising sugar production by financing the statutory corporation which is BADMC. Unless they subsidise the private growers to the same level, there will be no food security.

    Agriculture is a business, probably the second oldest in the world; a particularly difficult and risky one as well. If it doesn’t make money, no-one will do it.

    If agriculture did make money, there wouldn’t be a single house spot for sale on agricultural land, just like our entire history until the 80s.

    This is all simple. Too simple for successive gov’ts to understand.

    The current administration only became interested in agriculture when the opportunity arose to teef a few million dollars out of the stupid Andrews Factory destruction. Now their ‘consultation fees’ of nearly $5m have been paid to a St. Lucia registered teefin company, the project is dead. Taxpayers will have to pay those law suits as well.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    Here is today’s Advocate newspaper.

    EDITORIAL: STAMPING OUT PRAEDIAL LARCENY

    Tue, 10/17/2017 – 12:00am Barbados1
    FOR too long now, the unlawful harvesting of crops has been an ever-present troubling issue in Barbados, with many small to medium-sized farming operations feeling the brunt of those who dare engage in this illegal activity.
    Numerous local farmers have thrown their hands in the air in desperation, after losing a significant percentage of their agricultural produce to crop thieves, knowing full well that even when a report is made to the local police, the chances of recovering crops and even livestock will be small to none. Most of the preventative efforts geared against praedial larceny have centred around farmers themselves taking matters into their own hands.
    However, the Government of Barbados has moved to ensure that the current legislation, which is already “on the books” to deal with praedial larceny, is much more effective and has much more weight. This is exactly what most farmers have been calling for, given the fact that praedial larceny has put a damper on the local agricultural sector and those involved in it, who can’t bear to see their hard labour go for naught and potential profits which should have been coming to them, slip into the pockets of unscrupulous and heartless individuals who want to reap rewards without effort. Added to this however, is the call for praedial larcenists to be dealt with severely when they come before the courts, after being caught. A slap on the wrist will not do, farmers insist.
    Indeed, this matter is not one to scoff at, as praedial larceny has been cited as one of the major challenges impacting the growth of the agricultural sector in Barbados. Many local farmers feel that the issue of praedial larceny is not being viewed in the same light as other criminal activity. Barbadians frown on those who shoplift, those who are brazen enough to commit robbery and theft, those who burglarise private dwellings or commercial properties, yet the activity of stealing or even vandalising agricultural produce is treated in some cases as no big deal and the farmers who have to absorb all losses, are expected to start from scratch, in what is often a very labour intensive and expensive endeavour.
    While full enforcement of the law is really what the farming community wants to see in Barbados, farmers and those involved in agri-business should feel somewhat heartened that a move is being made to strengthen legislation that already exists to deal with praedial larceny. The Praedial Larceny Prevention Act CAP 142A, said to have been proclaimed in 1992, has been said not to be a strong enough deterrent to thieves, though some argue that it is the lack of enforcement of the law that is really the issue.
    However, via various amendments to praedial larceny legislation, greater effort is being made to ensure the traceability of agricultural produce via a system of coding; and provision is also being made for agricultural inspectors, who will have the legal authority to verify ownership of produce being sold. Of course, this will call for farmers to remain up to date with their registration and certification, but ultimately, with the inspectors doing their job as intended and working jointly with law enforcement officials, we may see a few loose ends being tied up and possibly a few more arrests being made. While we wait to see the full outcomes, the farming community must continue to advocate for praedial larceny to get greater attention and be stamped out in Barbados.

  4. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Lawson….ya should be ashamed that a female carries a bigger prick than you, foreskin and all…..lol.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    Another question: how will the high level of rainfall being experienced continue to negatively impact the sugar cane crop for 2018? Didn’t we experience single digit yield last year?

  6. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    What about growing beetroot…I believe I read couple years ago that EU is phasing out the sugar imports and replace it with beetroot instead, they will soon stop imports of sugar completely….particularly from the Caribbean.

    The sugar industry being subsidized by taxpayers is a waste of taxpayer’s money…again.

    Private growers should have made enough money over the last 2 generations to subsidize themselves, it is really unfair to the majority population.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Frustrated Businessman

    You position has merit, Barbados cannot compete with the agriculture sector from the developed world that are subsidized. We need to accept the design the model required to sustain the industry. We need to leave the emotional baggage at the door.

  8. Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim. Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim.

    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. October 17, 2017 at 7:19 AM #
    What about growing beetroot…I believe I read couple years ago that EU is phasing out the sugar imports and replace it with beetroot instead, they will soon stop imports of sugar

    Did up a premium product to grow a commodity in a world of mass production where we can’t compete?

    Brown cane sugar is a premium product. Our failure is in the gov’t-controlled marketing which has led to the low price and consequent low production.

    Gov’t needs to either subsidise the industry or denationalise it so someone else can.

    Those are the only two choices.

    Bajan rum producers need molasses. Right now 75% is being imported. That is just stupid.

  9. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    I get that Frustrated…government should give up the industry to private sector let them handle the premium brown sugar and molasses production….ministers are useless at business, this present lot are the worse yet.

    Government should have moved on from sugar and diversified decades ago and leave private sector to it, but their greed and corruption is their destruction.

  10. Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim. Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim.

    David October 17, 2017 at 7:31 AM #
    @Frustrated Businessman

    We need to accept the design the model required to sustain the industry. We need to leave the emotional baggage at the door.

    And there you have the crux of our demise.

    History revisionists are 100% to blame.

    The slave-owning plantation families of this island are long-gone (except for Drax whose family would love to sell his plantation but can’t get around the conditions of his Last Will & Testament).

    The people who currently own sugar plantations in Bim are mostly descendants of the nouveau-riche merchant class who made their money at the turn of the 20th century and descendants of Irish POW slaves and indentured English.

    Until the lying, thieving politicians stop demonising agriculture in this country because it is politically expedient to do so to pander to an ignorant black population, we will never make any agricultural progress.

  11. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Frustrated B is right about the ineptness of government to run the sugar industry.

    Unfortunately, what he neglects to mention is that the very reason that the government was able to take control from the private sector in the first place, was that the plantation class previously ALSO managed the sugar industry as their own private piggy bank …with the black workers getting only crumbs…. and those crumbs were even less than the current brass bowls are getting.

    The problem then, is bigger than which shiite entity ‘runs’ the sugar industry.

    The solution is so obvious…
    Government hands over control (for $100) of the industry to a cooperative that comprises all current stakeholders, and this cooperative then elects a board, which recruits and employ management and staff.
    Full performance reports are produced on a quarterly basis and we get open transparent members meetings like we see at our big credit unions …. presto … sensible decisions begin to emerge.

    One thing that cooperatives do well is to vote out misfits…
    who (currently) end up as politicians…

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    How come Paul and Williams running things at CoB?

  13. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/catalog/rum/11029#contentBeginIndex=0&productBeginIndex=0&beginIndex=0&orderBy=&categoryPath=spirits%2Frum&pageView=&resultType=products&orderByContent=&searchTerm=&facet=vintages%253A%2522true%2522&storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&fromPage=&loginError=&userId=-1002&objectId=&requesttype=ajax

  14. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim. October 17, 2017 at 9:36 AM #

    The slave-owning plantation families of this island are long-gone (except for Drax whose family would love to sell his plantation but can’t get around the conditions of his Last Will & Testament).

    The people who currently own sugar plantations in Bim are mostly descendants of the nouveau-riche merchant class who made their money at the turn of the 20th century and descendants of Irish POW slaves and indentured English.
    ………………………………………………………………………………………

    Correct but you omitted that many are under management of the BADMC due to their indebtedness and that slave descendants own a number as well in St.Lucy,St.George,St.Andrew,St.Joseph,St.Michael,St.Philip….from memory…..St.John’s ex-CLICOs are owned by Bimmers…..some more that may have slipped me.

    As I keep saying ad nauseam and will continue to repeat…..Succesive govts have been aware of what needs to be done to continue with Ag. in Bim, they even have studies on Hemp production and its many by products.

  15. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Barbados cane.Barbados molasses. Barbados rum produced in Barbados and branded Barbados Authentic Premium Rum.

    $ 100 US to $1000 US per 750ml bottle.

  16. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ” Barbados cannot compete with the agriculture sector from the developed world that are subsidized ”

    Barbados government should subsidise Bajan food crop farmers and the crops sold to Bajans.

    The notion that Barbados will always have money to import food is asinine.

    Barbados must become food secure because the day will come when you either grow your own food or starve to death.

    Buh doan mine me. I doan live in Barbados.

  17. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    “Unfortunately, what he neglects to mention is that the very reason that the government was able to take control from the private sector in the first place, was that the plantation class previously ALSO managed the sugar industry as their own private piggy bank …with the black workers getting only crumbs…. and those crumbs were even less than the current brass bowls are getting.”

    To that end, it was even more important for government to diversify far away from sugar decades ago and let the private sector fund the sugar industry from their own pockets, no subsidies and no government loans…..

    the majority population should never have been subjected to that level of greed and selfishness post slavery from plantation owners or sugar industry players…..they should have had many other options for employment outside of any plantation sugar industry work…..visionless idiots in government caused that.

    Whichever government is elected, not DLP, now has an opportunity to rectify that injustice.

  18. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ HantsOctober 17, 2017 at 11:12 AM

    Let us keep wishing and hoping.

    Wishing that the coming forex shortage would put a damper for imported ‘inferior’ quality molasses and creating a greater demand for the locally produced ‘better’ quality variety to justify the marketing label “Barbados Authentic Premium Rum”.

    Hoping the country’s sole sugar factory at Portvale does not end up a clapped-out museum of steel in memory of a belly-up industry with its former fields of sweet glory now overgrown with river tamarind awaiting transportation to an imaginary relic called Andrews.

    Meanwhile, US$ 270 million secured for its renovation and recovery ‘lies’ idle in a Japanese bank a/c awaiting the signature and approval of the MoF (minister of failures) for its drawdown.

  19. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    What happened to the Draft National Agricultural Policy White Paper entitled: “A Vision for the Future of Agriculture in Barbados”, prepared by Dr. Chelston Brathwaite former Director General of the Inter American Institute for Agricultural Sciences (IICA).

    In his address to the Barbados Agricultural Society on April 16, 2014 PM Freundel Stuart said that the white paper was presented to Cabinet in November 2013 which is 4 years ago!

    “Chairman of the National Agricultural Commission, Dr. Chelston Brathwaite, said based on preliminary discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture, the food and agricultural sector could contribute to four key areas of local economic development. These are: saving valuable foreign exchange by reducing the current food import bill, estimated by the Central Bank at some $409 million in 2011; providing safe, fresh and nutritious food, which will help to reduce the incidence of chronic non-communicable diseases; promoting agribusiness enterprises, which can assist in the creation of jobs; and the reduction of unemployment.
    This new approach, Dr. Brathwaite added, would result in the preparation of policy measures for areas critical to the development of the food and agricultural sector.”

    http://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/ministry-preparing-white-paper-for-agricultural-sector/

    So what is the status with this White Paper which is supposed to be a “Vision for the Future of Agriculture in Barbados” and according to PM Stuart, presented to Cabinet in November 2013?

  20. David Avatar
    David

    The BU household poses the following question to the Minister of Agriculture.

    What will become of the lands along the section of the ABC Highway planted in river tamarind?

  21. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    National river tamarind forest.

  22. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @David October 17, 2017 at 7:00 AM “Another question: how will the high level of rainfall being experienced continue to negatively impact the sugar cane crop for 2018?”

    High rainfall at this time is actually good for the 2018 sugar cane crop.

  23. Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim. Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim.

    Wrong Bush Tea.

    Read what I wrote more carefully.

    The sugar industry failed in the 90s because the producers of the product had no say in the way it was marketed and sold and could not take possession of it themselves to do better.

    The British West India Company mentality still exists with regard to the relationship between sugar and state.

    Very few people understand the centuries-old state monopolisation of the great power that was sugar. After independence that power transferred to our national gov’t. It still exists.

    What needs to happen is the entire industry needs to be de-governmentalised so that the free market system of evolution and revolution can work.

    In Bim, like every other failed communist and socialist state, we are very good at fighting the Law of Natural Selection.

  24. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “Barbados cane.Barbados molasses. Barbados rum produced in Barbados and branded Barbados Authentic Premium Rum.
    $ 100 US to $1000 US per 750ml bottle.”

    To do this, you have to be able to market a product. In general, Bajans do not market well, beyond their our shores. The ferners will buy our distilleries, and then show us how it is done. Even the Jamaicans have a similar challenge. Notice the push, since Appleton was sold to ferners?

  25. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ NorthernObserver,

    ferners….

    https://www.remy-cointreau.com/en/brands/mount-gay/

  26. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ NorthernObserver,

    https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2017/07/woodland-radicle-buys-cockspur-rum/

  27. David Avatar
    David

    Barbadians need to take heed of this FAO delivery!

  28. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Frustrated B
    Bushie agrees with your analysis of the current idiocy…..

    BUT…the natural corollary to what you are saying however, is that the remnants of the old plantocracy should be handed back full control of sugar….
    In fact, these are EXACT similar fiascos – one too far East ..and the other too far West.

    Perhaps it may not have impacted you as much, but Bushie KNOWS of the consequences to brass bowls such as the bushman, …of full ownership of the sugar infrastructure by the plantocracy….

    NOT for shiite again….

    Private ownership …. YES!!!
    But private COMMUNITY ownership.

    …and yuh can’t beat coops.

  29. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Hants

    you forgot Maison Ferrand bought the WIRR, before GEL sold the Cockspur/J&R brands.
    The same MF are the ones who sell Plantation branded rums at the LCBO from various Caribbean sources, including a bottle of Barbados 20th Anniversary XO for $76. Wanna bet that is aged rum from WIRR? When was the last time you saw Cockspur of any type at the LCBO? Never a bottle from R.L.Seale at LCBO, though I saw some in England this year.
    And recently all I ever found (in the US) was Cockspur Bajan crafted Rum, never the VSOR or others.
    https://therumhowlerblog.com/2010/02/02/rum-review-cockspur-12-year-old-bajan-crafted-rum/

    It is a marketing game.

  30. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Hants con’t
    is this the root cause of the WIRR/WIRD sale?

    National Rums of Jamaica (NRJ) is a partnership between three separate entities, the National Sugar Company of Jamaica (which is owned by the Jamaican Government), Goddard Enterprises (which is the parent company of the West Indies Rum Distillery in Barbados), and Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) (the makers of El Dorado Rum in Guyana, South America). National Rums of Jamaica owns 73 % of the Claredon Distillery; the other 27 % is apparently owned by Diageo who have historic ties to Jamaica which is the original home of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum.

    and notice how the company name Diageo, appears everywhere.

    beyond Bim…Groupo Campari bought out Wray & Nephew in J’ca (which owns Appleton + others)….now you know why Wray & Nephew branded rum is showing up all over the LCBO.

    and a final note in the Clico involvement, the Angostura matter in T&T isn’t over yet
    http://www.guardian.co.tt/business-guardian/2012-12-20/will-campari-acquire-angostura-stealth

  31. Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim. Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: Animal Farm sequel playing out in Bim.

    Bushy, what you are suggesting is communism and socialism.

    Neither works. Too many chiefs, not enough indians.

    What I’m suggesting with regard to sugar is exactly the same as every other aspect of Bajan life needs to return productivity and efficiency; a disengagement of gov’t from any activity that should be determined by free trade.

    Remember that the serf system in Europe only functioned until the great plagues that made it necessary to pay for labour due to a shortage thereof.

    Before that labourers gave their effort in exchange for grain, somewhere to build a hovel and keep some animals. Those days are long gone.

    In any new agricultural model, labour will be at a premium and will probably have to be imported like during the height of our sugar production in the 50s, 60s and 70s when every plantation had barracks for imported cane-cutters.

    The purpose of Gov’t is to LEGISLATE, REGULATE AND FACILITATE, NOT OPERATE.

  32. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.loopnewsbarbados.com%2Fcontent%2Fblack-belly-sheep-industry-needs-serious-shakeup-and-investment&h=ATNkDPtfnXurw8Lxvpr37Up0iJzEH19SMOoUw3W5rc66usdUNVmjFwAWnG5M7IoR8lc-hvWcMoiAjc8OhBJaScSQQq99X9Kxm6S9C8tmojMegLYzeQD3S_eWpfAkfFuun_yBdvyuYjRcDI1k90HYsP3R55k

  33. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/170459946321730/permalink/1788948081139567/

    Oneal Hunteblackbelly & other breed sheep in Barbados
    This Goat was sold for US $52,000.00.

  34. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Other Caribbean countries are seeing the light, coming out of darkness.

    “Most St Lucians support the relaxing of marijuana laws, according to a poll carried out by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES).

    The current legal status were preferred by 38% of those questioned, while 51% supported full legalisation or partial decriminalisation, which CADRES said “essentially means that most St Lucians are opposed to the maintenance of the status quo.”

    Approximately 1,000 people were interviewed across the island in September.

    Participants were asked their “views on the decriminalisation of marijuana in St Lucia” and provided with three possible responses, as well as the option not to respond.

    According to CADRES, which also conducted similar polls in several Caribbean islands including Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines, the results tell an important story that is likely to be applicable across the region.

    “It is interesting to note that the attitude of St Lucians on this issue is similar to that of all other Caribbean countries surveyed, especially as the margin of error associated with these surveys is plus or minus 5%,” the organisation said in a statement.

    “St Lucia therefore shares the same attitude towards full legalisation with St Vincent, while Barbados, Dominica and Antigua all have a slightly larger quantity of persons who are supportive of full legalisation.

    Advertise on WIC News

    “Similarly, the 38 per cent of St Lucians that opted for the status quo is consistent with the level of opposition to decriminalisation in St Vincent, Dominica and Barbados.””

  35. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    “Private ownership …. YES!!!”

    With no help from government, no subsidies, no loans..

    ……no engaging the majority Black population to create slave labor or low wages….

    ,…and make them pay to get control of the industry, let them borrow from banks so the state would allow them control of the sugar industry…

    …..if they fail, the industry returns to the state, no bailouts..

    ….. if they violate any terms of agreement, the industry returns to the state..

    .,… no importing slave labor to violate any human rights…

    Bushman….they would have to abide by those terms.

  36. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Trinidad’s free thinker is weighing in…

    “Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan has called for the decriminalisation of marijuana and sex workers.

    He said illegal activity as marijuana use or prostitution pose no real threat or danger to society and too often persons charged with these offences are oppressed, humiliated and branded as criminals. And by decriminalising these actions, he said, it will protect thousands of citizens from being sent to jail unnecessarily and preserve their lives, which would have been destroyed as a result.

    Khan said it will also provide Government with the ability to put regulations in place and weed out any criminal elements that may be entangled within them.

    Following his contribution to the 2018 Appropriation Bill in Parliament last week, Khan said, he has been inundated with calls and messages in support of his statement.

    Khan said as is the case with all psychotropic drugs, both legal and illegal, marijuana has the ability to lead to debilitating addiction and all of the fallout associated with that. But in small doses marijuana also has many applications in medicine and presents a healthier alternative to persons who consume other narcotics, both legal and illegal, he said………”

  37. John Avatar
    John

    You can’t eat Marijuana!!

    If everybody legalizes it the law of supply and demand dictates the price will fall through the floor!!

    Barbados is just too small, as it always was and will be to compete.

    Sugar Cane, another form of grass remains the only large scale viable crop but as it was in the beginning it will never be profitable long term.

    We just need to realise it does not have to be financially viable for it to be economically viable.

    Our ancestors were smart enough to have figured that one out with no UWI!!

  38. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “If everybody legalizes it the law of supply and demand dictates the price will fall through the floor”

    Ya think? So the Canadian government decides to legalize pot. They decide to leave regional implementation to local government. Several of these decide to market pot via provincial government run bodies, like they do with alcohol. Many of these provincial bodies buy a 26oz bottle at 5.70 and sell it at 26.95. If you think they’re dropping the price of pot anytime soon u r dead wrong. And anybody else who sells pot, is now an ‘enemy’. Watch them create a whole new policing body to ‘enforce pot sales laws’. When the government smells revenue, watch out.

  39. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @NorthernObserver October 18, 2017 at 11:41 PM “When the government smells revenue, watch out.”

    Revenue/money is the crack that keeps governments going.

  40. John Avatar
    John

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/05/how-legalization-caused-the-price-of-marijuana-to-collapse/?utm_term=.c490f29117d8

    Once everyone legalizes marijuana it becomes like any other agricultural product, cheap!!

    The low cost producers will drive the high cost producers out of the market.

  41. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Good….the byproducts of marijuana produced by the majority population, used by them to cut costs and exported to generate revenue is all that matters….

    …..everyone else who like to tief labor and exploit to tief from pensioners and taxpayers can go suck rotten eggs.

  42. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ John October 19, 2017 at 4:01 AM
    “Once everyone legalizes marijuana it becomes like any other agricultural product, cheap!!
    The low cost producers will drive the high cost producers out of the market.”

    Bingo, John! There goes the almost perfect solution to the “illegal” trade in marihuana and the associated crime.

    When last did you see men killing one another over alcohol or tobacco?

    Do you see Bajan “entrepreneurs” opening rum shops to sell cigarettes?

    At last, a practical ‘agro-economist’ with the key to the tool shed that contains some workable forex saving measures.

    Now who would want to incur such high cost of importing ‘mary-jane’ when you could get the local variety for the ‘next-bambu-to-rizla’ at Rosita & Clementina drug store while doing some national good by saving some of the scarce forex and by stimulating the local economy through a naturally-occurring programme of import substitution creating an upmarket supply chain where there is a ‘high’ demand for the Bajan brands of “Mount Josephine” and “Maxwell Heights”.

    The one ‘drawback’ to the ‘freeing-up’ of the herb to local production is that the Bajan equivalent of the ATF would have little to do and with so much ‘idle’ time on its hand might just divert its resources in the ‘war’ against cyber crime.

  43. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    lol…

    Miller….one day John and his ilk will realize, they are no longer in control, a major transition and transfer of power to it`s rightful owners…the majority population….. took place while they were counting their illgotten gains….or asleep.

  44. John Avatar
    John

    As the price of marijuana declines and it is in the short term profitable, large farmers with water to grow the marijuana, the plantations will reap a harvest!!

    The era of small farmer who had to “truck water in” will disappear!!

    This will give the large farming units the needed cash flow to diversify out of marijuana and get their lands back into cultivation.

  45. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    https://www.facebook.com/homesteadhustle/videos/355561411555852/

  46. John Avatar
    John

    … and since COW and Bizzy own Four Square, Groves and Kendal, getting up to 1500 acres, oh yeah, Lears too plenty water,, they will do de dawg!!!

    No water trucking for them!!

  47. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ John October 19, 2017 at 2:50 PM #
    “… and since COW and Bizzy own Four Square, Groves and Kendal, getting up to 1500 acres, oh yeah, Lears too plenty water,, they will do de dawg!!!
    No water trucking for them!!”

    John, you purposely forgot to mention that these big boys will also NOT be hauled before the courts or be spending 1 day behind bars as currently happens with the small-scale (black) farmers.

    So the growing of marijuana under the control of the big boys will no longer be the evil plant of the underworld but be beatified as the saviour of the Bajan economy just like the hypocrites are doing in the great white North and even as near as Jamaica.

    Poor Peter Tosh must be weeping with ‘joyful’ resentment in his grave overgrown with collie weed as he sings with in his melodiously ‘high’ voice:

    “Legalize it
    And don’t criticize it
    Legalize it, yeah, yeah
    And I will advertise it

    Some call it tampje
    Some call it the weed
    Some call it marijuana
    Some of them call it ganja

    Legalize it
    And don’t criticize it
    Legalize it, yeah, yeah
    And I will advertise it

    Singers smoke it
    And players of instrument too
    Legalize it, yeah, yeah
    That’s the best thing you can do

    Doctors smoke it
    Nurses smoke it
    Judges smoke it
    Even the lawyer do

    So you got to…
    Legalize it
    And don’t criticize it
    Legalize it, yeah, yeah
    And I will advertise it

    It’s good for the flu
    Good for asthma
    Good for tuberculosis
    Even umara composis

    So you got to…
    Legalize it
    And don’t criticize it
    Legalize it, yeah, yeah
    And I will advertise it

    Bird eat it
    Ants love it
    Fowls eat it
    Goats love to play with it so…

    So you got to…
    Legalize it
    And don’t criticize it
    Legalize it, yeah, yeah
    And I will advertise it..”

  48. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “The low cost producers will drive the high cost producers out of the market”

    This, on the surface, makes logical sense. But the marketers are way ahead of this. Once they find an intermediary they can rape, cost of production becomes irrelevant.

    Ever notice how prescription drug prices rose as more people had insurance in the USA? Pharma could raise prices without having it in the consumers face, and to ‘look good’ they gave physicians ‘deep discount coupons’ for those who did not have insurance. The only hiccup, was insurance didn’t wish to pay for brand name when they were generics available, so all those consumers who previously insisted on ‘brand name’ drugs, now had to pay an upcharge versus the generics. Or accept the generics. Some of these products were decades old, the cost of production had no relevance to price, it was, what they could charge.

    Ditto for alcohol. Elsewhere, it has been observed MGay, Appleton, WIRD (Cockspur), Captain Morgan (beyond J’ca shores) have fallen into to foreign hands. This has little to do with ‘costs of production’ and everything to do with sales. When wholesalers like Diageo et al, get their hands on multiple brands, they wave a big stick. They demand if you want ‘this brand of vodka’ you also order brand X in whiskey, rum, gin, wine, liqueur etc etc. The lone wolf distiller has a nightmare getting shelf space. And when alcohol retail is publicly owned, the challenge is greater, the big stick wavers have a greater advantage. (One buyer to play with).

    So pot, like all the others, will become a marketing game.

  49. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Miller

    The Govt owns/controls the most agricultural land in Bim.

    …..majority of the Scotland District where many of the current hemp planters operate from which includes the CLICO 2000 plus acres.

    ……then the lands of all the indebted plantations to the old Agricultural Bank managed by the BADMC.

    I keep saying those farmers in Dodds can start growing at the old Dodds plantation lands……….that still require permission to be used for agriculture……….and when they legalise the growing put some in charge of operations as they know how to deal with production under severe conditions as well as praedial larceny.

  50. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    “This, on the surface, makes logical sense. But the marketers are way ahead of this. Once they find an intermediary they can rape, cost of production becomes irrelevant.”

    Those dollar bills rotating in John’s eyes wont be for the Cows and Bizzys…..the market for medicinal marijuana and marijuana byproducts in the big countries and even Barbados has already been cornered….no one will let those greedy minority crooks in, they dont need them.

    Jamaica git in early because they produce such high volumes and quality.

    It is already a marketing game…but the local majority population who have worked with it for decades among themselves…know exactly what to expect.

    People I know have already put systems in place.

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