The Tribune

THERE was no marijuana in the Garden of Eden when the world began — but there was a special fruit. Not only was this fruit a curiosity piece, but what added to its worth — it was forbidden.

If God had not made it off limits to Adam and Eve, it probably would have never attracted their attention. But, a sly snake, slithered by, tempted them into tasting the forbidden fruit. Believing they would be in the same position as God, with the wealth and wisdom of the world at their feet, they tasted the fruit and fell from grace. God rebuked them for their disobedience, drove them out of Paradise, and so, here we are today dealing with another of God’s creations — marijuana. To legalise, or not to legalise? Forbid, or not to forbid?

Only a few moons ago, The Tribune was fighting a dangerous, but hard battle against drug smugglers. Dangerous, because in those days Bahamians were so terrified of what was happening all around them that the only organisation that they felt they could trust was The Tribune. They came like Nicodemuses in the night to finger the culprits in the hopes that we could turn them in to the proper authorities. It was at a time when even we were uncertain of our own police force. There was only one member of the force who we really trusted. But, so as not to endanger him, we worked in the main with our contacts in the US.

The irony of it was that while Tribune staff worked in their offices upstairs trying to expose the drug trade, corrupt politicians and the lengths to which drug smuggling had permeated our entire society, it was discovered that at our distribution centre downstairs one of our staff had a little drug business of his own going with the distribution of The Tribune. When found out, he was dealt with in short order. We then discovered that some of our pressmen were acting in an unusual manner.

It was fortunate for us that our son, Robert, almost from the time he could talk, had one ambition in life and that was to be a press man and run our Goss Suburban press. It was also our good fortune to have arranged that the manufacturer would allow one of their talented press men to take a summer vacation in Nassau and train this budding pressman. When it was time for Robert to return to his studies in England, and the pressman to his company in Chicago, Robert could not only run and conduct maintenance on our press, but he could actually rebuild it.

On our son’s return home the following summer, we were faced with an almost non-functioning press room. The entire press staff had to be replaced and a teenager had to recruit mature men and train them during his summer vacation. Robert did an excellent job, we became stronger in that area of the operation than we had been for a long time. The press room not only flourished, but the staff recognised that there was someone around who knew more than they did about presses, so no longer could wool be pulled over our eyes.

To get an answer as to what might help make drug peddling less attractive, we should look back to the rum running days when a Florida boat builder by the name of Bill McCoy started running rum from Bimini to Miami. He was known for selling the best and purest liquor in town. Many of the other smugglers would dilute their whiskey to increase their profits, but with McCoy’s consignment one knew they were always getting the “real McCoy”. This in fact is the origin of the “real McCoy” expression.

“Buying and selling liquor was never a crime in the British Empire,” wrote the late Larry Smith in an article on the rum-running days, “but the temperance movement in America managed to pass legislation in 1919, over a presidential veto, banning the sale and consumption of alcohol. So for 13 long years the FBI and the US Coast Guard fought a rough and tumble war to stem the flow of illegal liquor from Canada, Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas.

“According to an official Coast Guard history, ‘enormous profits were to be made, with stories of 700 per cent or more for the more popular Scotch or Cognac. Probably the only reliable clue to the extent of the trade were the statistics on liquor passing through Nassau en route to the US: 50,000 quarts in 1917 to 10,000,000 in 1922.

“Perhaps an even better measure of the demand for alcohol was the fact that American doctors earned $40m in 1928 by writing whiskey prescriptions. And the legal exception for sacramental wine was equally abused.”

Those were the days — like the illegal drug trade today – when illegality paid off, and many rum runners made their wealth on the high seas being chased by the US Coast Guard. As Larry Smith concluded, “Nassau as we know it today is largely a creation of the revenue earned from bootlegging. The harbour was dredged in 1923, with the spoil used to create Clifford Park; water was piped from the western well fields to a new tower on Fort Fincastle hill; electricity supply was expanded; roads were tarred and the first sewerage system was installed in 1930” and so it went on.

“But - just as we are experiencing today - there was a seamier side to the prosperity. A government inquiry found that juvenile vagrancy and crime were rampant, accompanied by drinking, bad language and vandalism, leading to the establishment of the Boy’s Industrial School in 1928,” Mr Smith reported.

However, when Prohibition ended, the vagabonds and criminals disappeared. Today, one can go to any liquor store and legally purchase as many bottles of rum as desired. Alcohol is legal, but for misuse there are penalties - drunk driving being one of them, particularly if it results in a road fatality. Persons can be dismissed from their employment if they report for work under the influence. And so law is in place to punish and to a certain extent control illegal use.

When the profit was removed from the sale of alcohol, competitive criminality was at an end. Remove the illegality from drug peddling and what makes violating the law attractive today, should quickly cease. The drug runners will be out of business, and there should no longer be the need for drug gangs. Police might then be in a position to report fewer murders.

However, although we are not advocating the legalisation of marijuana without much thought, we are suggesting that a study of the rum-running era be done and consideration as to whether removing the profit from the drug trade by the legalisation of marijuana might help to force our present day criminals to search for legitimate employment.

If legalised, unlike the apple in the Garden of Eden, drugs will no longer be a forbidden fruit as the temptation of profit will have been eliminated. Instead, like the penalties for over indulgence in alcohol, there will be penalties for over indulgence in the use of drugs.