Marijuana is illegal in The Bahamas. If police catch you with it, you’ll be arrested and prosecuted. You can be fined, sent to prison or both. When you’re done with jail, you’ll have a criminal record saying you’ve been found with drugs. Traveling and finding a job are more difficult once you’ve been found with weed.

Our view of marijuana is archaic. Our policies toward possession of the drug turn too many of our young people into criminals. The possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal consumption should be decriminalized. Too much police and court time is wasted on punishing recreational pot smokers. Too many of our young people are not being given a chance to enter the working world because they have criminal records just for smoking marijuana.

Evolved thinking

Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize the production, distribution, sale and recreational usage of marijuana. President José Mujica signed the changes into law in that country in December 2013. In many of the other well-known places where pot usage is permitted, the drug has been decriminalized rather than legalized – that is, as a policy individuals found with small qualities of marijuana are not arrested and prosecuted while the drug remains illegal.

In 1976 the Netherlands adopted a written policy of non-enforcement for violations of the law involving the possession or sale of small amounts of cannabis. In February of this year Jamaica’s Parliament moved to decriminalize possession and usage of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

While marijuana use is illegal in the United States under federal law, several states have moved to either legalize or decriminalize recreational use of the drug. There are legal weed markets in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington State. Public health advocates are even pushing for change. A 2014 World Health Organization (WHO) report, focused on HIV prevention, argued for the decriminalization of personal drug use in an effort to reduce incarceration.

Fear and shortsightedness hold us back

The Obama administration has been progressive. Before Jamaica’s Parliament passed decriminalization legislation, William Brownfield, U.S assistant secretary for counter-narcotics affairs, said “Jamaican law is, of course, Jamaica’s own business and Jamaica’s sovereign decision.” He added, though, that the trafficking of marijuana into the U.S. remains illegal.

“We expect that Jamaica and all states party to the U.N. drug conventions will uphold their obligations, including a firm commitment to combating and dismantling criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking,” Brownfield said.

The Obama administration has chosen not to impose federal law prohibiting marijuana on those American states that have passed laws allowing its usage. There has also been no sanction against Jamaica by the U.S. for liberalizing its drug policy. America’s opinion on changes to our drug laws matters a lot to our elected officials.

Since the 1980s, when the Columbians used Norman’s Cay as a major distribution center for narcotics transportation into the U.S., the Americans have been heavy-handed regarding their involvement with drug-related issues in The Bahamas. Through the OPBAT agreement, the U.S. even has its law enforcement officers working on Bahamian territory. Our politicians fear any drug policy change that would upset the Americans.

They also fear the church. Many of our religious leaders – most of them are Protestants – have demonstrated over and over again that they are not progressives. They are against expanding rights to homosexuals. They are lukewarm to the proposed constitutional reform effort to expand rights to women. These men and women have influence. Our politicians are wary of being on the wrong side of them. I doubt if any of the pastors would support decriminalizing marijuana.

Reform must happen nonetheless

Changes in the U.S. should make that first concern of our elected officials fall away. America is realizing that the full prohibition against marijuana is a failed policy. It unnecessarily fills jails – the U.S. has the largest prison population in the world – and it takes up too much police and court time that could be better used dealing with serious crimes.

As for the pastors, they should simply be ignored. Too many of our young people are unnecessarily caught up in the criminal justice system because they like to smoke marijuana. Many have been to prison. Many can’t travel. Many can’t find work. These are not bad people. They are no different than those who like to drink a beer after work.

Prohibition has failed. That is obvious, and countries around the world are moving toward decriminalization in order to end the worst excesses of the “drug war”.

Decriminalizing personal use of marijuana would keep us within the boundaries of the international drug conventions we have signed up to. It would also give a new generation a chance to live without harassment from police and the state. We should join the marijuana reform movement. Keeping our current laws makes no sense.