SENIOR Government advisor Delano Seiveright says that while cannabis law reform is progressing reasonably well in Jamaica, the country still faces fundamental challenges relating directly to US Government foreign policy and outdated United Nations conventions.

Seiveright noted that while several US states have gone the route of full legalisation, sovereign states like Jamaica are still fearful of the consequences from the US Federal Government itself and other powerful countries, despite strong public support for change.

“It is noteworthy that the US Federal Government has effectively ceded its role and left it to US states to create policy, while other nations grapple with reform for fear of consequences,” Seiveright, a director of the local Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) told a meeting of law students, academics and civil society representatives at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts last week.

He noted that Canada is clearly in favour of full legalisation next year, in direct contravention of UN treaties, and what he described as the “hypocrisy” of several US states legalising cannabis despite the federal government’s continued hardline position.

Seiveright asked the audience to oppose what he described as the “repressive laws against cannabis”, as a means of freeing the hands of smaller developing states around the globe to make meaningful cannabis law reforms

The situation, he said, is “unacceptable”, and urged the gathering to remember the circumstances of developing countries like Jamaica, that need significant reforms to bolster human rights, their criminal justice systems and better position their economies for real and diverse growth.

Seiveright noted that while cannabis law reform is progressing “reasonably well” in Jamaica, the country still faces fundamental challenges related directly to the US Government foreign policy and outdated United Nations conventions.

The meeting at Harvard was organised by noted Harvard Professor of Law, Charles Nesson.

Nesson praised bipartisan consensus, and the roles of Seiveright, a former president of the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Generation 2000 (G2K) and currently senior advisor to tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, and People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Paul Burke, as well as former justice minister, Senator Mark Golding, for their work in propelling Jamaica’s reform efforts.

Recent polls in the United States showed public support for marijuana legalisation hovering around 60 per cent, nationally.

Already, 25 states have legalised medical marijuana, while four states —Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington — have legalised recreational marijuana, as has Washington, DC.