The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY Wayne Munroe believes the government's track to cannabis reform will lead to the establishment of a monopoly on local sale and cultivation.

Mr Munroe, QC, characterised the appointment of the Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana as a semantics game, and rebuffed suggestions that Rastafarians should wait for the body to submit its report codifying Bahamian attitudes on plant use. The BNCM has been granted a three-month extension to complete its work after missing its April deadline.

Mr Munroe represents the Bobo Ashanti, who are petitioning for recognition of their right to sacramental use of marijuana.

Their deadline for the government to consult with them before launching legal action expired yesterday with no response from the Minnis administration, according to Mr Munroe.

"It's to give somebody who they have pre-determined the right to produce something that they told us all in the past used to kill us," said Mr Munroe during an interview with The Tribune.

"Their greatest problem will be if they try to say it's a public health issue then how are they considering legalising it?"

He continued: "It's just a game and the game they have is they have one or two people of a particular description who they want to be in charge of producing all the marijuana for the Bahamas.

"They are just going to give people permission and they will be the only people who can sell it in The Bahamas and it will be produced for The Bahamas.

"And they probably won't permit importation of it and that's all it is part of a system to try and give somebody the right to do something. The people who will get the permission will be people who have money already and who ain't gonna do nothing for anybody."

Mr Munroe also said: "What we were trying to get the government to do was to meet with us and talk with us. So, for instance, if you have to go to court, it's not going to be no organised thing, it's just going to be if I'm a Rastafarian I have a right to practise my religion. (To establish controls) not that they have a right to do it, but to be sensible to say it's in everyone's interest for it to be done sensibly.

"But if they don't want to talk to us then we just have to go and say what your right is."

Bahamas Christian Council president Delton Fernander has suggested there would be no way to control the religious use of cannabis if the argument was successful in court, adding it would create a loophole that would lead to everyone claiming the religion.

In response, Mr Munroe said: "What stops me renting a little storefront, saying Jesus is talking to me every night, and taking people money? If you gonna talk about questioning whether people are sincere, it don't only apply to Rastas, it will apply to them to. The question would be how would they feel if we would decide to say that too much people playing with God, thieving people money and we gonna say that you have to somehow qualify to open a church. They will get very upset right, because that's their faith. So how do they feel that they can question somebody else's faith?"

Activists engaged in similar discussions on social media yesterday.

Weighing in on Facebook, activist Erin Greene argued the current course will lead to a further restriction of individual rights concerning the plant in a bid to protect private interests.

"Provisions already exist," she wrote, "demand the existing laws be enhanced to reflect the current global and local attitudes, policies and procedures.

"They're playing like no authorisation is permissible, as it stands - ordinary citizens will lose 'the right to possess' they already enjoy - as the state creates legislation to protect the interests of 'stakeholders'."

Ms Greene continued: "After you force the state to acknowledge existing legislation, present them with draft legislation that protects individual rights and also, creates industry."

Ms Greene suggested the government's track should be to: lift the prohibition on marijuana; enhance regulations for entry to the market; invest in local research facilities; enhance border control; and to enhance other relevant state services.

The Bahamas Bar Association will host a public forum on "The Implications of Marijuana: Legalization, Decriminalization and Regulation" at the University of the Bahamas' RBC Theatre today at 7pm.