Rastafarians' Ceremonial Use of Marijuana Causes Problems With Government

August 13, 2004

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/081404dnrelrasta.161da.html

On August 13, 2004 The Dallas Morning News reported, "Past the potholes and puddles, the skinny dogs and scampering children, a stone stairway snaked its way through an ancient apartment building. Near the top, a woman sat in her living room collecting the cover charge: 19 cents for Cuban women, 38 cents for men, $1 for foreigners. It was a clandestine party organized by those who say they're the most persecuted members of Cuba's counterculture: Rastafarians. 'A great many Rastas are in jail,' said Eligio Flores Ruíz, 32. 'The government doesn't accept us. They say we're a threat to the revolution. They're bothered by the fact that we're free thinkers.' Government supporters deny that and say what bothers them is that Rastas break the law – they smoke marijuana. The Rastafarian movement began in Jamaican slums in the 1930s. Believers say there's only one true God, the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, formerly known as Ras Tafari. And they say marijuana, or ganja as they call it, helps them get closer to their inner spirit. Cuban authorities don't tolerate marijuana and other illegal drugs. And traffickers can be sentenced to death in extreme cases."