By: Staff Writer
June 23, 2023
St Kitts and Nevis government passed the Rastafari Rights Recognition Bill, 2023, which would now allow Rastafarians in that country to smoke marijuana for religious purposes.
The Bill, passed June now, comes as a significant milestone in the Caribbean for marijuana use for personal reasons.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister with responsibility for Ecclesiastical and Faith-Based Affairs, Dr Geoffrey Hanley apologized to the Rastafarian community for years of societal oppression and religious persecution that they have suffered throughout the history of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“Apologies without actions are of no use to anyone. Our action today in moving for a safe passage of this Bill is one of the many steps this government plans to take to make things right for our Rasta brothers and sisters, elders and empresses,” said Dr. Hanley during the National Assembly on June 20 while moving the Rastafari Rights Recognition Bill, 2023.
The bill also allows Rastafarians to cultivate, harvest, possess and smoke cannabis as part of their personal, religious and educational practices.
Rastafarians will also get free licenses from the Medicinal Cannabis Authority and gain tax breaks.
From this day forward, the men and women of the society that call themselves Rasta and subscribe to the Rastafari way of life have their constitutional rights recognized and enshrined in law for no man to trample on ever again.
Led by the brave legal challenge to the laws of this country by Ras Sankofa Maccabee, on May 3, 2019, the courts recognized Rastafari as a religion and some of our cannabis-related laws have been struck down as being infringements of the constitutional rights of Rasta.
The SKN Constitution provides for freedom of religion and prohibits discrimination based on religion. In May a High Court decision ruled unconstitutional the government’s ban on the private use of marijuana, including for religious activities, which affects some practitioners of Rastafarianism.
Attorney General Garth Wilkin appreciated the Government and said, “If there was ever a manifestation of the words penned by Robert Nesta Marley 40 years ago, in 1983, in his popular Reggae song Rastaman Live Up: “Iyaman live up, Rastaman don’t give up”, this case was it.”