T&T’S NARCO ECONOMY

DAVID Rudder’s depiction of Trinidad and Tobago with respect to drugs is becoming more and more evident.

In his 1996 epic Mad Man Rant, Rudder famously sang:

“Somebody clean out the weed well fas’

But somebody letting the cocaine pass.”

At a time when the world is decriminalising the use of marijuana and creating a lucrative cannabis industry, Trinidad and Tobago is still boasting of weed busts.

There have been no efforts to set up cannabidiol (CDB) industries from cannabis and hemp plants for medicinal and recreational use.

Health benefits, and especially effectiveness in the management of pain, have made CDB an international growth industry.

The global CDB market is said to be worth around US $14 billion and is set to grow by 22 per cent by 2028.

 In the Caribbean, several countries are involved in the business.

Jamaica is continuing to build a thriving cannabis industry, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines is exporting CDB products.

Antigua and Barbuda is promoting cannabis tourism, and Barbados is promoting the use of CDB.

T&T, meanwhile, is arresting and charging marijuana farmers and has closed its eyes to the potential of the cannabis industry.

While the weed business is being zapped, T&T remains a transhipment zone for cocaine, according to various international reports.

T&T “is a prime location for narcotics transportation,” an agency of the United States Department of State said in a recent report, echoing several previous accounts.

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said during the Budget debate that “narco-operators have embedded themselves into parts of the country, thus fuelling crime.”

Ms. Persad-Bissessar stated: “A large part of our economy, mainly the underground economy, is financed by drug money.”

She said the economy “has become awash with drug money.”

According to her, “narco-funded crime is an inflictor of great pain.”

Even with the reported heavy transhipment, there have been few and infrequent busts by the local authorities.

An arrest of a man allegedly with US $1 million worth of heroin was made with the active involvement of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

US Ambassador Candace Bond said she was “proud of the painstaking work” done by DEA agents “every single day to help end drug trafficking and strengthen citizen security for the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

In May, a $234 million cocaine bust was made off Chaguaramas, again with a leadership role from US experts.

The Americans were also involved when a methamphetamine laboratory was raided in San Fernando in August.

The local police service has made little headway in stemming the flow of drugs.

The most recent International Narcotics Control Strategy report stated that drug trafficking organisations are taking advantage of T&T’s proximity to Venezuela, porous borders, limited law enforcement capacity and resources, and corruption within law enforcement.

Ms. Persad-Bissessar said the Government “has been captured by the fake elites and grovelling oligarchy,” some of whom are in bed with the ruling administration.

“Only the ignorant refuse to see it,” she insisted.

“This narco-inflicted crime is an inflictor of great pain.”

Rudder had it right.

Somebody letting the cocaine pass…