MEMBERS of the Rastafarian community yesterday praised the recommendations made by the Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana to have the drug legalised as a sacrament for Rastafarians, noting the move as a step in the right direction. Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, head of the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress (EABIC) Bahamas branch, Priest Rithmond McKinney said the move would represent a sort of freedom for the community, which has suffered longstanding oppression due to members’ sacramental use of the plant. “You know over the years, for the last 20 something years, we was at the table agitating concerning our sacramental rights and it was being denied over and over and repeatedly,” he told The Tribune. “We’ve been locked up, marginalised, persecuted and in all negative ways, we’ve been stereotyped so we bear the brunt of this whole issue concerning marijuana and the use of marijuana over the years….so we feel as though some kind of retribution should be followed to the Rasta man.

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