t Kitts and Nevis’ Rastafarian community now have the right to use and possess marijuana.
This comes after the Rastafari Rights Recognition Bill, 2023 was passed in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The bill allows Rastafarians to cultivate, harvest, possess and smoke cannabis as part of their personal, religious and educational practices.
Rastafarians will also get free licences from the Medicinal Cannabis Authority and gain tax breaks.
Attorney General Garth Lucien Wilkin said it is a form of “reparative justice” for the federation’s Rastafarian community, who were often targeted for their use of marijuana.
Laws, which prevented Rastafarians from using marijuana in their religious practices, were deemed unconstitutional on May 3, 2019, when High Court Judge Eddy Ventose sided with Ras Sankofa Maccabee after he appealed his conviction for cultivating marijuana.
Ventose said the court recognised Rastafarianism as a religion and its followers’ use of marijuana as a sacrament in rituals is protected by the constitution.
Wilkin added the bill has brought St Kitts and Nevis’ laws regarding Rastafarians into compliance with the constitution.
https://caribbean.loopnews.com/content/rastafarians-st-kitts-nevis-gain-legal-right-use-marijuana
