Golding promises new day for ganja

July 18, 2025
PNP president Mark Golding
PNP president Mark Golding
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People's National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding has pledged to reignite Jamaica's stalled ganja revolution, declaring that the next PNP government will deliver true liberation for both users and small farmers.

Speaking at party meeting in Black River, St Elizabeth, on Wednesday, Golding recounted his time as minister of justice, between 2011 and 2016, when he championed the decriminalisation of ganja. He said ganja reform is both a human and economic rights issue.

"From I was a youth, I saw so many young people being hauled and pulled by police just because them have a little draw of weed, or a little spliff in their hand," Golding told the crowd.

"And the Rastaman with him chalice saying, 'Yes to Jah and praise He'--police want [to] lock him up for that. I said no," Golding said.

The PNP president reminded supporters of the 2015 legislation he helped spearhead, which decriminalised small quantities of ganja for personal use, noting that the law protected citizens from being criminalised for minor possession and ended a long history of oppressive enforcement.

"When them kill Mario Deane in jail over a spliff tail, I said it has to stop. And we brought legislation to make sure a policeman can't do that to you again."

Golding said the ganja reform legislation created an economic pathway for small farmers who, for generations, cultivated the crop and helped build Jamaica's global reputation for high-grade cannabis. He noted that the framework also included provisions for the development of medicinal and therapeutic ganja industries.

"We say ganja should be uplifting the people, the small farmers who built the industry and helped to build the brand of Jamaica around ganja, which is an internationally respected brand," Golding said.

Golding lamented that after the PNP lost the 2016 election, the Jamaica Labour Party failed to carry the momentum forward.

"They don't believe in it. They don't understand it. And the thing has been a complete waste of an opportunity."

Still, he promised that under a future PNP government, the tide will turn.

"It will be a new day for ganja farmers in Jamaica," Golding declared.

"We intend to complete our mission of liberation and upliftment and using ganja for the benefit of the whole world," he said.

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