President of the Dominica Olympic Committee (DOC) Billy Doctrove says while he is pleased that the Government has decided to get involved with the marijuana industry, he is disturbed at the move to “legalize small portions for individual and recreational purposes.”
During the 2020/2021 budget presentation by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, he expressed his government’s intention to go to Parliament by September 2020 to have small portions of the drugs legalized in Dominica.
But Doctrove says that while he fully supports its use for medical and religious purposes although he visualizes some unscrupulous individuals jumping on the religious bandwagon to have easy access to it he is still very concerned.
“The intention that disturbs me most, is the one to legalize whatever is the agreed amount, what this means is that our your persons and in particular our budding sportsmen and women can now legally possess and use the drug on a daily basis uninhibited and herein lies my biggest concern and fear,” he said.
He continued, “I have worked consistently with young people practically all my life, almost on a daily basis and I have done so on the local, regional and international arena and I have personally witnessed not only numerous careers, but many lives tragically destroyed by the use and abuse of marijuana, alcohol and other illegal substances.”
Doctrove a former International Football Referee and former International Test Cricket Umpire believe that as a country, Dominica should not, therefore, follow the more advanced countries by blindly going down that road.
“These more developed countries possess the infrastructure, facilities and human expertise to identify and also to treat young persons at a very early stage if they confirm the necessity for treatment for marijuana abuse, but in our case, we are not so blessed with those resources and this results in families that can afford to be able to send their loved ones overseas for rehab, whereas those who are unable to afford the sometimes exorbitant costs associated with the treatment, have to just sit and look at members of their families wilt away and many times become unproductive members of our society”.
He explained that what he deeply despises, is listening to some knowledgeable persons trying to give the impression that using marijuana has no ill effects. “If they want to call for the decriminalization and legitimacy of marijuana, they have their right to do so, but please do so without distorting the facts,” he said.
“So I would encourage the Government to proceed down this road with extreme caution because it could have disastrous effects on our your population, in particular on the developing minds of our young sportsmen and women and in addition, the Dominican society as a whole would be severely affected if this venture is not managed with extreme precision, efficiency and a very high level of professionalism”.