Today we continue our reflection on major stories published by the Jamaica Observer over the 25 years of the newspaper’s existence.

Westmoreland ganja farmer and devotee of the late reggae superstar Peter Tosh, who advocated legalisation of the weed, generated intense discussion worldwide when the Jamaica Observer published his plea in October 2013 urging authorities not to go that route.

But hours after the newspaper publication, police raided Ras Puddler’s house and arrested him, saying that they found a chillum pipe, three pounds of ganja and several ganja seedlings.

The police said they would charge Ras Puddler with breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Ras Puddler, who sold ganja spliffs and smoked a fat chillum pipe openly at the ‘Peter Tosh Earthstrong’ concert near Belmont, Westmoreland, the singer’s birthplace, on October 20, 2013, did not mince words in opposing the legalisation of marijuana.

“I don’t want ganja to be legalised. They should go no further than decriminalise it so that the police will not have to harass me for my spliff,” Ras Puddler told the Observer.

Puddler’s reason for taking a position which was contrary to the popular cry for legalisation of the weed was that large farmers would put vast acreages of ganja under cultivation and quickly force the small planter out of the business.

“What is going to happen if dem legalise it is that I, and others like me, will be used like slaves by the ‘big man’ to grow his crop. No sah, I don’t want it legalised,” declared Puddler.

At the same time, Puddler, who wanted to be photographed smoking his chillum pipe, said ganja farming in Westmoreland was in the doldrums, as crime was forcing away visitors who used to flock the parish to purchase the weed.

He said the price of a spliff (ganja cigarette) was, at the time, averaging $50, down from $100 or more, while a pound of ganja, which used to fetch $5,000 or more, was down to $4,000 or less. He said that two months before the interview he reaped 50 pounds of the herb and still had supplies from that crop, which was unusual.

“We just not getting anything from it because of the crime. People not coming again to buy like they used to,” complained Puddler.

The Rastaman’s utterances had run counter to Jamaica’s growing lobby for legalisation of ganja which appeared to be gaining bi-partisan support in the Parliament.

Damion Crawford, People’s National Party (PNP) then Member of Parliament (MP) for St Andrew East Rural, and then Opposition MP for Portland Western Daryl Vaz found common cause in the parliamentary debate on the decriminalisation of ganja.

Crawford said people should not have police records because of an offence related to the use of ganja, while Vaz urged Parliament to adopt some of the recommendations of the National Commission on Ganja, including decriminalisation.

The commission, first headed by the late Professor Barry Chevannes, recommended that the relevant laws be amended so that ganja be decriminalised for private, personal use of small quantities by adults.

Well-known PNP executive Paul Burke and Delano Seiveright, former president of the Jamaica Labour Party affiliate G2K, co-exist as members of the Ganja Law Reform Coalition which advocates legalisation.

At the time of the publication Seiveright was in Denver, Colorado — the first American state to legalise ganja — where he represented the coalition at the 2013 International Drug Policy Reform Conference, at the invitation of the New York City-based Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).

The DPA is headed by Dr Ethan Nadelmann who visited Jamaica in August 2013 to promote the legalisation of ganja here.

Proponents of legalisation argue that Jamaica could make serious money from ganja which could impact the economy well beyond any loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Tosh, who was shot dead at his home in St Andrew on September 11, 1987, was a strong advocate of legalisation.

He lit up a ganja spliff in front of then Prime Minister Michael Manley and then Opposition Leader Edward Seaga during the One Love Peace Concert at the National Stadium on April 22, 1978, and lectured about the benefits of cannabis while blasting both men for their failure to legalise the weed.

In April 2015, the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, more popularly known as the ‘Ganja Law’, took effect in Jamaica. It makes possession of two or less ounces of ganja a ticketable offence; prohibits the smoking of ganja in public places; and makes provisions for the granting of licences as well as the establishment of a regulated industry for ganja for medical, scientific and therapeutic uses. It also allows for the cultivation of five or fewer plants on any premises.