Last year Colorado Raised More Tax Revenue From Marijuana Than From Alcohol. 70 million vs 42 million. Imagine how much money the Bahamas could generate in a echo friendly tourism or medicinal environment. Those who argue the morality of it have no problem drinking alcohol,, smoking cigarettes or eating copious amounts of kfc, fritters, and high glycemic carbs. Marijuana has proven medicinal value and can be produced cheaply and taxed heavily rather than killing the poor with VAT on essential items. Its major side affect is eating more food which is a good source of revenue for our restaurants.

People are poor because poor decision, or are they conditioned to be poor. Nobody wants to be poor. Many are not blessed with an environment full of resources including individuals with sound minds to educated them. If dady is a drunk who quit school in 4th grade and mommy is the same and u live around poverty and crime do u think it's a choice for most. Povety is generational for many unless someone gets a break or some person reaches in and breaks that cycle with knowledge or resources. Lets face reality the poor are exploited by the upper class and criminals. Look at the illegal webshops sucking the life out of poor communities exploiting the suffering with hopes of hitting the big score. Who your daddy and mommy is are the factors that determine whether u gonna be poor or not.

Where is the church in all this fighting for the hearts, minds, and souls of the lost. There is one on almost every block in the ghetto, but ever since the gospel of prosperity has become the message of the day, concern for the suffering has been replaced by the goal of self enrichment through exploitation. I was shocked to read about the many men of God ( call no names) advocating vigorously for young men involved in murder to meet the hangman's noose Yet them and their family have benefited from the generousity of the flook, many whom give their last in the name God to ensure Pastor keep his mercedes. The church has become a fashion show full of sybolic gestures, ceremony, exploitation and just outright hypocrisy. It has lost all integrity and the ability to affect change, Jesus would be very disappointed..

A police, arrest, court, jail only strategy is like using a pin to pop chicken pox pimples to eradicate the disease. There are just to many young men being raised in broken homes without male guidance hanging on blocks doing nothing. Poorly socialized, poorly educated, living in poverty, breeding more kids in this dyfunctional environment. U lock them up for petty crimes like smoking weed without rehabilitation & six months later what do u have, a hardened criminal young man hanging on the block committing more serious crimes including murder. We need to attack this problem at its root with a cordinated effort from individuals in the business community, the church, social services, the police, the schools, and any community based organizations. People want to leave it all to the criminal justice system, especially the police, but the police cannot fight crime alone in a free society without the support of everyone in the country. At this point I don't see anything changing, the Bahamas today is a place where people don't even know their neigbors anymore nor do they care too. The fear has parylized many to the point where all movement is controlled and timed based on necessity.

Thisours, valid points. People believe u can arrest away the problem which is a proven failed long term strategy as we have seen with the current issue with the war on drugs in the U.S & around the world. Crime is only a symptom of the disease that has taken over our country. The greater problem is that we have allowed corruption to go unchecked for to long and with most dysfunctional societies a trickle down occurs & all existence is negatively affected.

Truepeople, it gonna get worse regardless. To many fatherless young men with poor socialization, no direction, no education or poorly educated, no job, no hope, sitting up on the block or living in abject poverty. More babies are being breed in these conditions and what the party tribalist loyalist forget is the fact that we live on small islands where we may think we're safe behind gates but its only a short distance to our door step. High crime is only the symtom of the disease brought on by 40 years of unchecked corruption from our leaders. In 2015 the disease is worse so Investigative journalism will just gives us tribune readers more facts to answer questions ourselfs.

Investigative journalism is surely lacking, getting news from police briefings & court arraignments is not journalism, give us the inside scoop, hidden facts obtain by putting forth extra effort. Background of the parties involved including any violent pass not reported. Help us understand how this dispute escalated to a killing. Was this an ongoing issued? Where there threats? News outlets in the U.S are like hound dogs looking for facts and exposes & report independent facts many times not uncovered by law enforcement. Good investigative journalism is necessary in keeping balance by ucovering details, ensuring fairness, transparency, rule of law, and keeping the system honest by keeping public aware. How do we know if justice is being upheld or whether someone has been denied or granted bail fairly? Guess we'll have to wait for the court in 2 years to get the more facts, at this point don't have any idea based on reporting whether this is murder or self defense.

Sadly the record for murders in a year has been broken . Hopefully both parties will come to the realization that what's going on in this county requires national unity to solve.

This is sad. Clearly these people are in desperate need of employment but I want to encourage the young person above who wrote the response in frustration to reexamine their approach. Attitude, appearance, presentation are all factors as u are selling to a company why u are an asset to them if hired. We must be careful not to further aggitate persons that are trying as we don't want them to give up and add to our social problems. To this young person please sit down and have a conversation with some professional and work on improving your presentation. What it sounds like is that you were dismissed as soon as you started talking..

Agreed Emac.. But u will never get Bahamians to take responsibility. It's relatives of the people in communities committing crime, u see people come on Tv crying about what a good boy Johnny was after he's dead but when u look at his criminal record it's miles long. From the politicians down we all are responsible for this hell