Team Herald
MARGAO: Goa Forward Party (GFP) president Vijai Sardesai in a video address hit out against the law minister’s justifications to permit cannabis cultivation within the State.
Sardesai said, “We now learn that apart from the movement of a file which was not denied by the government will also be put up for cabinet approval soon.”
Questioning the parents of each child in Goa, Sardesai asked, “Would you feel safe to let your child have access to cannabis? Would you feel safe if our villages and hometowns become hubs for cannabis manufacturing? I would not.”
Sardesai also raised a series of questions demanding the people’s right to know “who suggested the idea to legalise cannabis cultivation? Who in Goa stands to benefit from the legalisation? And why isn’t the government giving the people a clear outline and answer to their intentions and plans?”
Sardesai said, “Is it not right that this project of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Swayampurna Goa was actually an idea from a person from Jammu and Kashmir where cannabis is locally grown rather than its invasive entrance here into Goa. The CM wants to fool Goans by saying I will make you self-sufficient when he was actually intending to benefit people outside Goa”.
Sardesai raised concern over the government not having regulatory systems in place within the State’s legal and governance apparatus, and questioned, “If the cultivation & sale of marijuana would initially start for ‘medicinal purposes and then be allowed for recreational use?”
Further, Sardesai questioned whether the Law Department made an informed decision about cannabis cultivation, and pointed out that “within consumer protection, who will use the drug and how much will people understand what it will do to your body? Has the government studied the mental and physical harm and addictions it would cause its users? And who will take responsibility for any overdose? The CM?”
The Goa Forward president hitting out at the Chief Minister said, “The question today is that if you want to make a Swayampurna Goa under Atmanirbhar Bharat, why you only need to do it with marijuana and cannabis? Will the tourism in the State increase? And will there truly be any economic benefit to the State and the people?”
Sardesai concluded his address highlighting that BJP’s Parsekar and Arlekar and other seniors who hold sway over educational institutions must think and introspect the cannabis cultivation issue.
He said, “There is no one like CM Sawant who bends down to the demands of the Centre, and has sold our Mhadei, increased coal transportation and wants to make Goa a vices hub”.
