By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
AGRICULTURE and Marine Resources Minister Michael Pintard said on Thursday he plans to discuss the economic potential of industrial hemp with Cabinet ministers while the issue of legal marijuana is still being deliberated.
Mr Pintard made the remarks when asked whether the government was considering cannabis cultivation as a potential economic relief measure and also, whether his ministry had begun research potential cannabis farming in the Family Islands.
However, the minister replied that he could not speak to the issue of cannabis cultivation as he does not know what the government’s intentions are as it relates to the drug.
“As you would be aware, the commission that has been established by the prime minister is in the Office of the Prime Minister. So really, he has the exclusive purview in addressing the issue of cannabis and what the intentions are on cannabis,” he said on Thursday.
“What I can comment on is two other things that are closely related but are not necessarily in the purview of that commission. One is industrial hemp, which produces a wide range of products, which of course in its cultivation would have to be zoned in a location so that there isn’t cross pollination between related crops.
“That is something that has massive potential. We have been in numerous meetings with investors, Bahamians as well as otherwise in respect to industrial hemp. That is not the hemp, that is not which you smoke. You don’t get high by it.”
He continued: “It’s consumed and it's used to produce a wide range of products that you and I would use and so it is my intention to ask Cabinet that we proceed in terms of separating that until the question of cannabis has been settled.
“Let's deal with what should not be a controversial issue. Secondly, CBD products as well which again do not have THC in it which would in fact get somebody high and the things that concerned a great many Bahamians.
“We need to move on the things that are not controversial to a large extent that have the potential to generate revenue that others are taking advantage of and the longer we wait, the longer we miss opportunities.”
Comments
DDK 4 years, 2 months ago
Will you then put that disscussion in a box labeled "not to be opened until the next millennium", Mr. Politician?
proudloudandfnm 4 years, 2 months ago
This is all we'll get from any government for the next 900 years. We talking bout it...
Bunch a nanny.
Just legalize it already... Sheesh...
SP 4 years, 2 months ago
Here we go reinventing the wheel again, while the world has already done the research and moved on.
Only in the Bahamas!
tribanon 4 years, 2 months ago
Minnis has instructed all of his cabinet ministers to say and do anything possible to take the public's attention away from their (actually his) failure to mitigate the devastating effects of the Covid-19 crisis on our nation and its people. We therefore have a bozo like Pintard talking about legalizing marijuana while many of our people (including young children) are going to bed hungry at night because our economy is crumbling as a result of Minnis's gross incompetence.
DWW 4 years, 2 months ago
talk talk talk. meanwhile young men going to jail. meanwhile the rest of the world is like "hey this is a waste of government resources, lets put that into something more productive". But hey its the bahamas. The most stable parliamentary democracy in the world because heave about as much adaptation to change as the vogons.
JokeyJack 4 years, 2 months ago
Just one more example of how the churches are driving this country straight to Hell. The pastors presume the authority to even tell God what mistakes He made. There are other examples in the areas of reproductive rights, marital relationships, etc. People go every Sunday and donate money to their cause, the cause of destroying their own selves. When people will pay someone else to destroy them, well, there's not much you can do to help people like that.
BONEFISH 4 years, 2 months ago
Most sensible, progressive ideas take decades to be implemented in the Bahamas. The Bahamas has always lagged ten to fifteen years behind first world countries.
This would be no exception.
hrysippus 4 years, 2 months ago
Rather like the honourable minister, this is simply irrelevant to most everybody.
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