Last Updated on Saturday, 5 November 2022, 19:59 by Denis Chabrol
The group of Rastafarians and Attorney General Anil Nandlall exchange views about penalties for the possession of marijuana. (File picture)
The Guyana Rastafari Council on Saturday assailed government’s rejection of a proposal to decriminalise the possession of marijuana rather than merely removing imprisonment as a penalty but Attorney General Anil Nandlall has already said that changes to the narcotics law are aimed at finding a “delicate balance” between competing interests.
Mr Nandlall said, at the bipartisan parliamentary select committee, there were no amendments to the government-sponsored Bill to scrap custodial sentences for the possession of 30 grammes or less of marijuana but instead provides for community service. “Being in possession of 30 or less grammes of marijuana continues to be a criminal offence, What this Bill does is that it removes custodial sentence. Prior to this Bill persons would have been sentenced to no less than three years and no more than six years were that person to have been found in possession of 30 grammes of marijuana,” he said on the Department of Public Information’s programme, Parliamentary Agenda. When amended the Bill would provide for mandatory counselling for persons convicted of the possession of 1 to 15 grammes and community service for 15 to 30 grammes.
The Rastafari Council on Saturday said it planned to protest outside the Arthur…
