ST JOHN'S, Antigua (AP) - Leaders of Antigua's Rastafarian community said yesterday that they would petition Parliament to legalise marijuana, which they use in religious rituals.

Hundreds of people have signed the petition, which they plan to present to lawmakers next week, said King Franki, chairman of the Ras Freeman Foundation for Unification of Rastafari. Franki on Thursday led about 400 Rastafarians in a peaceful march through St John's, the Antiguan capital.

It was unclear whether the measure could muster enough support to be discussed in the Caribbean country's Parliament. Lawmakers have traditionally frowned on such proposals.

"The time has come for Caribbean Community (members) to act together and decriminalise marijuana," said Chanlah Codrington, deputy speaker of the Antigua House of Representatives.

But top criminal lawyer John Fuller said Codrington was in the minority. "This is a very conservative Parliament. There is no way they will consider it," he said.

Rastafarianism emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s out of anger over the oppression of blacks. Adherents revere the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and say that, as the descendants of slaves, they should recover their African roots.

In 1997, a judge in Antigua ruled that Rastafarianism is a religion and that its practitioners are entitled to protection under the law.

Antiguan Rastafarians petitioned the government to legalise marijuana in 2000, but their petition was ignored.
Marijuana is illegal in all 15 Caribbean Community countries.
In Antigua, fines and prison terms for offenders are left to the judge's discretion.

There are 25 inmates convicted of marijuana offences among the 184 inmates at Her Majesty's Prison, the country's sole correctional facility.

There are an estimated 700,000 Rastafarians in the world, most of them among Jamaica's 2.6 million people. About 2,000 Rastafarians live in Antigua, which has a population of 70,000.

In 2003, a Jamaican government commission recommended the legalisation of marijuana. Lawmakers never acted, saying legalisation might entail loss of their country's US anti-drug certification. Countries that lose it, face economic sanctions.

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