‘Better crop than pot’

EXTENSIVE GROWING OF marijuana can result if Barbados continues to abandon sugar cane cultivation, says chairman of Barbados Sugar Industries Limited (BSIL), Patrick Bethel.
With police recently discovering several areas of marijuana cultivation in abandoned fields across the country, Bethel said it might not be long before the growers took measures to protect their illegal product, thereby creating terror in the society.
Bethel, insisting that sugar cane cultivation had a value beyond commercial gain, told the WEEKEND NATION that the lesson of those who grew marijuana in neighbouring islands was there for all to see.
“What is dangerous about this is that in other Caribbean countries where marijuana is cultivated up in the hills, the cultivators take extraordinary measures to protect their assets,” he explained.