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“EXCELLENCE THROUGH KNOWLEDGE” P A G E 120 One cannot help but observe that these recommendations are the very genesis of the amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act which have recently been passed into law in April 2015. The entire question of the decriminalisation of ganja has been on the tracing board of successive administrations. Possibly, the lengthy incubation period before taking the bold initiative to lead the charge in effecting the recommendations for decriminalisation was as a direct consequence of the fear of condemnation by external forces, particularly from the United States of America (which coincidentally have effected several initiatives in decriminalising marijuana use in several states). Amendments to our laws have now been passed and it is therefore trite to focus on the sphere of the US influence in dictating our course as it relates to decriminalisation, bearing in mind, particularly, that the ambit of the amendments are not quite as far-reaching as it may at first glance appear! Certainly, the amendments are nowhere close to the 1998 recommendations of the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, which presented a case for removing ganja from the schedule of dangerous drugs altogether. The council, in fact, recommended that “every individual should be able to cultivate, possess, sell, smoke and use ganja, that Rastafarians should not need any special permit to use it for their religious purposes, and that the court should have the power to treat addiction as a medical problem”. Once the amendments heralding the decriminalisation of ganja are clearly understood and appreciated by the public at large, it will bring into stark focus the fact that this bold step of the legislators does not nearly amount to a blanket ‘legalise it’, but the amendments attempt to “fly the gate” only so far as to the beach front of our coastlines, and certainly not over and beyond our shores to traverse the ocean corridors of the world. From a strictly legal perspective, deciphering the amendments will result from the interplay between the judges and lawyers in legal proceedings which may ensue and necessitate statutory interpretations and judicial rulings on the meaning and import of aspects of the amended legislation. Aside from those provisions that may lend to varying interpretations, the aspects of the legislation that are considered literal and straightforward should not need to be deciphered, but rather should be strictly adhered to. Additionally, there are several aspects of the new law that cannot be effected until companion regulations have been promulgated in order to bring clarity and understanding to the rules, regulations and procedures which will provide efficacy to the new law. In the most general terms, the new provisions seek to cover the possession and smoking of ganja of the public at large, the use in particular by persons of the Rastafarian faith, and even more persuasive and poignant from a socio-economic perspective, the use of ganja for medical, therapeutic and scientific purposes. One of the amendments that appear to be of major interest to the public, generally, is the fact that possession of two ounces or less of ganja will no longer be a criminal offence, which will result in a