PHENTON NEYMOUR EMERGES

There was an extraordinary intervention in the public domain last week.  It started when on 29 June someone started circulating a picture of Phenton Neymour, the former Minister of State and MP for South Beach, on line with his wife in a pretty slimmed down state.  The speculation soon turned to the news that he was dead.  This forced Mr. Neymour to come out with a voice note to deny any such thing.  He said that he has been fighting stage four cancer for four years.  He went further and appeared on one of the radio talk shows during the week to say that he had been at death’s door to the point that at one time, his family had begun to prepare for his funeral.  However, he was still at it.  He attributed medical marijuana as helping him into remission.  His comment came at a propitious time when the Caricom leaders of the region were meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica to determine the fate of a report on Marijuana by a Commission which was convened to study the issue.  The Bahamas government has not committed itself on the issue.  As far as some MPs on the issue are prepared to go is medical marijuana but not full scale legalization.  We support full scale legalization.  Mr. Neymour helped the cause.  He also helped another cause.  Mark Twain once said in response to rumours that he had died: “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”  That is a fitting refrain for Mr. Neymour.  The struggle continues. He has added to the public policy in health: how to deal with sickness and how to deal with death. They are real and a clear and present dangers. No use hiding our heads in the sand.