The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A marijuana advocate yesterday urged the Government to engage in more consultation over planned legislation as it was difficult to get excited about the proposal without seeing it.

Terry Miller, chairman of the Bahamas Cannabis Research Institute (BACARI), told Tribune Business that the current administration appeared to be following its Minnis predecessor in failing to reach out to hime despite his group being the “number one advocate” for legalised, regulated medical marijuana and industrial hemp industries in The Bahamas.

Responding to Senator Ryan Pinder, the attorney general, Ryan Pinder, who was reported as saying that marijuana legislation will be submitted to the Cabinet by month’s end. He added that the latest draft Bill included industrial hemp, whereas previous versions excluded it.

Mr Miller said that while the focus on industrial hemp is “great news”, and what his BACARI has been pushing for, it was “difficult” to get excited over draft legislation they have not yet seen.

“We haven’t heard anyone say let’s reach out to us and get some feedback from us. This is quite discouraging. If legislation is going to be presented to Cabinet by the end of the month, well, they should be meeting with us now,” he added.

“This is a delicate thing that is not to be taken lightly. If they do this right then the country will flourish, but if they do this wrong it’s going to cost us another five years of stress and other problems. They are not the experts and they don’t have all of the answers, and they don’t have all of the input because they don’t have all of the experts.

“We have been doing this for over three solid years, meeting with people all over the world and looking at this in-depth, and looking at how cannabis is run in other jurisdictions.”

Arguing that the Jamaican marijuana experience was flawed, and that country is now “catching up” from the mistakes it made during its legalisation, Mr Miller added: “There were things in their law that weren’t working for the average person, so if the average person does not feel the benefits from the law it will be a waste of time because you will have a whole bunch of people making noise.”

As for the Bahamian experience, Mr Miller is “concerned” about the proliferation of a marijuana black market being allowed to thrive alongside the legalised market, calling it a “disaster waiting to happen for young people” if the legislation does not find a way to deal with this.

“We have to make the black market not worth their while, and instead push them towards a legal market with less stress to deal with. If we do that we will protect our kids because, right now, drug dealers are selling and they don’t care who they sell to,” he added.