Our At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Mr Faris Al-Rawi, whose of­fice I re­spect, was re­port­ed as say­ing each home will be al­lowed to grow four male mar­i­jua­na plants, this caused me to smile. Male and fe­male plants, thanks for the in­fo.

I won­der if the smok­ers check for this?

How­ev­er, more im­por­tant­ly, I would like to know who will be mon­i­tor­ing the thou­sands of homes all over Trinidad and To­ba­go to en­sure that this reg­u­la­tion is up held?

Let’s get where the rub­ber meets the road. This is T&T, where crime has be­come a way of life; cor­rup­tion and dis­hon­esty are now the norm in many cir­cles.

Does my dear friend re­al­ly have the faith that all cit­i­zens who want to grow that stuff if de­crim­i­nal­is­ing laws are passed, will on­ly plant 4 male plants?

The big ques­tion is which en­ti­ty will be mon­i­tor­ing weed grow­ing at homes, is it the TTPS who are still hav­ing a hard time deal­ing with the se­ri­ous crime sit­u­a­tion in T&T?

Is it that we are leav­ing it up to the hon­esty and in­tegri­ty of all cit­i­zens? I wish us all the luck in the world.

There are thou­sands of homes in our coun­try. Are we go­ing to be pay­ing peo­ple to car­ry out reg­u­lar search­es? Do our cit­i­zens know that this will be im­pos­si­ble? Guess what, they will do their own thing and for­get about four male plants.

What about the chil­dren? These plants will sure­ly not be grown in a room un­der lock and key, with chil­dren around. With these four male plants, it is like putting a fish in the reach of a cat and telling the cat not to in­ter­fere and go its mer­ry way dai­ly.

Even­tu­al­ly some­thing will give. Chil­dren to­day are bright and they will find a way to get some leaves and be­gin their own small fac­to­ry.

My ad­vice to par­ents is, if this dec­i­mal­is­ing law gets the ap­proval of the Par­lia­ment, which I am hop­ing it does not, “keep your head on,” es­pe­cial­ly with your chil­dren and those un­der your care for whom you are re­spon­si­ble.

Arnold Gopeesingh