The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A LEADER of a local cannabis organisation is calling on the government to give the group “one of every type of licence” that will be issued in a legal marijuana industry.

At a press conference yesterday, Terry Miller, chairman of the Green Alternative Investment Network Cooperative Society Limited (GAIN), said the group is advocating for working-class Bahamians to ensure they have a piece of the marijuana pie.

“We are asking that the government give us one of every type of licence — give, complimentary — one of every type of licence in the marijuana industry,” Mr Miller said.

He predicted the licences issued by the government once a marijuana industry is established will be highly valuable.

“There’s no feeling about it... every licence will be worth millions. It will be magic. We’ll turn every one of those licences into millions.”

He explained why his group is making such a request.

“While we are not opposing the bestowing of licences on the rich and connected, we are asking that our government secure the GAIN co-op platform for the working class Bahamians to have ownership in the regulated marijuana industry,” Mr Miller said.

“If you are serious, truly serious, about empowering a larger cross section of Bahamians, the opportunity is here and it is now.

“We are saying give us one of each that’s not asking much. We’re not saying give us $1 million dollars of every licence. We’re saying sign a piece of paper over to us.”

He went on to explain the different types of licences the group saw possible.

“You have a cultivator grower licence which there’ll be two licences. One for industrial hemp growing and one for medicinal marijuana. There’s two completely different types of cultivation. You have security and transportation because this is still a regulated industry, so you wanna secure and protect.

“You have dispensaries where the whole purpose of those dispensaries is to have specific types of cannabis, medicinal marijuana, where doctors will be retrained and doctors are going to have to go through a whole lot of training to understand the endocannabinoid system, how it works, and the different types of medicinal marijuana that’s available. So they will be giving the prescription to go to the dispensaries.

“Research and development is a big one,” Mr Miller said. “Whenever you come up with a new strain you know, you get royalties on that strain in perpetuity. You will have licences on vape shops….”

Mr Miller said the group is calling for the release of a white paper on medical marijuana and for the Cabinet to adopt GAIN as the “people’s standard bearer” in the marijuana industry.

Last month, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said the government is in the process of completing legislation to bring to Parliament “to legalise medicinal marijuana” so that it can be grown by Bahamians and utilised and exported.