SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Despite victory in the Westmoreland Parish Court over the prosecution of members of the Rastafarian community for the cultivation and use of marijuana, attorney-at-law Dr Marcus Goffe remains concerned about their treatment.

“It still leaves my client with his rights infringed because he was arrested, he was handcuffed, he was charged, he was prosecuted, embarrassed in front of his home, family, and community.

”And so we still have the issue that he has his rights, which he, of course, can now take advice in regard to starting a lawsuit against the Government for police abuse of power and police abuse of his constitutional rights to sacrament,” Goffe told the Jamaica Observer.

“We, the [Rastafari] community, are prepared to take it further, because if the Government will not intervene to protect our rights, maybe the courts will do so, because we have been calling on the commissioner of police for years to intervene to protect us from the abuse and we don’t see any kind of protection or intervention in that regard,” added Goffe.

He was speaking with the Observer at the Savanna-la-Mar Police Station, where 76 pounds of the herb and equipment used in the growing and processing of the herb — which had been seized by the police — were returned to his client.

The police had charged sacramental grower Ras Jermaine Jackson and his girlfriend Melissa Blake with illegal possession of and dealing in ganja, following an operation at their Retirement, Orange Hill, premises in Negril on May 27.

Jackson told the Observer that sometime between 8:20 and 9:00 am, he and his girlfriend were at their premises when four vehicles with approximately 20 cops drove up to the property.

“They said they wanted to search the premises. They said they were looking for gun. So I left them to do their routine. On doing their routine, they found my sacrament. I made it clear that this was my sacrament and they said I must go to the court and tell the judge that,” explained Jackson, who added that no illegal weapon was found by the cops.

Jackson and his girlfriend were arrested, and the herb and equipment — dehumidifiers, humidifiers, an electronic scale, and harvesting machines — were seized by the police.

The two were given a June 17 court date. However, the charges against them were withdrawn when the case was called up for the first time in the Westmoreland Parish Court.

Jackson said this was the first time he had been in trouble with the law.

“I am just recovering, because I did not know… how the court was going to deal with the situation. So I was just in denial and doubts until the actual day when I got represented to get everything to justice,” shared Jackson.

In court, Goffe showed the judge and the clerk of court that his client was cultivating the herb under a Rastafari organisation, Herbs for the Pure, which is authorised by the Ministry of Justice to cultivate ganja for Rastafari community purposes.

Goffe argued that his client is part of the Rastafari sacred, sacramental ecosystem, and he is not to be charged with possession or dealing in ganja. The clerk of court agreed and the case was withdrawn.

Lead elder for Starscape Rastafari Sanctuary and former Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) board director, Kamau Janai, who also represents the Rastafari community in Manchester, St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, and Hanover, reiterated calls for the police commissioner to intervene to address how its members are being treated.

“We are still appealing to the police high command, the commissioner himself, to just give us some attention. We would like to have a dialogue with him and his team to understand and build a relationship with the Rastafari community… because at the end of the day, we are all here [on] Jamaica, land we love.

“We recognise and love our herb, [which] is not going anywhere. We just want persons to respect the process and what we are doing. Give us our freedom and liberty to use our ganja,” argued Janai.

Under the Dangerous Drugs Act, which came into effect on April 15, 2015, provisions were implemented for the possession and smoking of ganja; the use of ganja by those of the Rastafarian faith; and the use of ganja for medical, therapeutic, and scientific purposes.

From 1987, Ganja activist and CLA Board Director Verald Vassell, better known as Ras Iyah V, has been among those who have been writing letters to successive administrations, marching, and protesting for change.

“You know, because from even before the 2015 amendment, based on the United Nations Charter, Constitutional Fundamental Human Rights, and the Jamaican Constitution, our rights as Rastafari were continuously being violated for having herbs in our possession.

So this is something that we took on, and we’ve been fighting the system for quite some time. Little by little, we are getting positive results, but this is unsatisfactory to us, in the sense that Rastafari, even with all these dialogues taking place with the Government, continue to experience harassment at the hands of the police,” said Ras Iyah V.

“So even though it is victorious, this is not what we want. What we want is for the police to stop harassing Rastafari for [the] herb,” added Ras Iyah V as he called on the Government to have the amendment placed in all police stations.

“So we’re calling on the Government, again and again, to educate our police so that they stop harassing Rastafari. I will mention Mario Dean, who was killed for having a piece of a spliff. Ganja is a part of [the] Rastafari and Jamaican culture, like athletics, like football, like any other thing; it’s a part of Jamaican culture. So we are saying that it’s time that Rastafari enjoy our constitutional rights and stop being harassed by the police,” added Ras Iyah V.