Members of the Rastafarian community listening to the debate on marijuana legislation in the House of Assembly on July 15, 2024. Photo: Dante Carrer
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Chief Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
TWO interest groups that expressed concerns about the Davis administration's cannabis legislation backed down from their harsh positions and said they are hopeful their complaints will be addressed.
President of The Bahamas Pharmaceutical Association (BPA), Dr Marvin Smith and Priest Rithmond McKinney, a leader in the Rastafarian community, spoke to reporters yesterday after listening to debate on a compendium of bills that would legalise cannabis for medicinal and religious use.
Dr Smith, who had previously criticised the Davis administration for failing to consult the group properly, had expressed concerns about registered cannabis dispensers working independently without the supervision of licensed pharmacists.
An amendment to the bills later addressed this by mandating that “every cannabis dispensary shall be under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist who shall be responsible for the oversight of the cannabis dispensary".
Yesterday, Dr Smith said: “We felt that having five or more facilities being overseen by one pharmacist just wasn’t feasible and didn’t make any sense. We felt that the number should be closer to three, and the government, the minister, the AG when we met with them on Friday agreed that they would make the review and seek to bring that number to three, and we’ll look at it again a couple years down the road and if it needs to be moved up, we’ll have that discussion.”
He said the association also asked the government to impose minimum standards for dispensers, adding: "It couldn’t just simply be that you’re 25 years old and don’t have a police record.”
He said both parties have since agreed to design a “comprehensive” training programme for dispensers.
“The minimum to get in that programme is you’re going to have to qualify as a pharmacy technician,” he added.
For his part, Priest McKinney said he was “85 per cent” pleased with the bills.
“We have some reservations but we must still talk with the relevant authorities and hope some changes can be made before the bill can be officially amended,” he told reporters.
The bills legalise cannabis for religious purposes by allowing organisations to obtain an organisation licence and letting people get an individual use licence.
The initial cost of a religious use licence is $1,000, and the non-refundable annual fee is $1,000 for organisations and $500 for individuals.
The Rastafarian community opposes this and wants the licenses for free.
In addition, Priest McKinney also questioned whether people who had their records expunged for cannabis possession could apply for a licence.
Responding to questions from the opposition on this, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe referred to section 5 of a proposed amendment to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, which states: “A person who has become a rehabilitated person for the purpose of this act in respect to the conviction shall be treated for all purposes in law as a person who has not committed or been charged with or prosecuted for or convicted of or sentenced for an offence which is the subject for the conviction.”
Comments
ThisIsOurs 5 months, 1 week ago
Forget it. Your usefulness is over. They needed you to drum up public support to move their agenda forward. Just as in illegal gaming, a large group of poor black people demanding this thing be passed so they could become rich too. They're working as cashiers and security guards at the gaming house now.
Realistically noone is going to give you a license to sell a mind altering substance of unknown chemical content to anybody. The liability would be too great.
The alternative would be to comply with medical liability insurance premiums, test lab and regime of testing which would be quite expensive. No bank will give you the money.
Forget it. They're doing this for maybe 4 money interests.
DWW 5 months, 1 week ago
beer, wine, rum, wodka, etc.? no?
ThisIsOurs 5 months, 1 week ago
Beer wine vodka rum is not marijuana. Its beer wine vodka and rum. I did not see the Rastafarians lobbying to sell beer or wine
ThisIsOurs 5 months, 1 week ago
Expect a whole range of knockoff nefarious activity. The first I can think of is fake prescription pads with prescriptions being handed out on the beach
carltonr61 5 months, 1 week ago
And the phama boys cant deposit money in the banks so where will the drug money be? If the weed is in the pharmacy where pediatric and geriatrics are, and mannnn, high boy wants his weed now not caring for the FDA approved fix of civilians in the small room if they lite a medical joint then go into pharmacy psychoses. imagine the armed guards around their houses and cars and the guns pharmacists must carry,
DWW 5 months, 1 week ago
um, you are referring to meth, crank and crack, no the green plant. grow up please and do some real research.
carltonr61 5 months, 1 week ago
Weed dispensaries cannot even sell alcohol. But this bunch wants to sell ice cream to kids and marijuana. in the same place. And yes, gambling is classified as a Mental Health Problem .by WHO, UN, American Association of Psychiatry, EU, Canada, Australia and the world but we call it playing marbles while Bahamians gamble their business, homes and culture away. Only in The Bahamas if you have intelligence, black and poor, any stupid dumb and rich with money is always king..King of the pockets.
carltonr61 5 months, 1 week ago
And as part to maintain Gambling License. free food must be given back to the a$$e$ who lost their jobs and houses, But no money is spent on helping them cure their weekly, bi weekly, monthly or monies gained gambling addictions. Just a tearful national, disgusting criminal act by The Gaming Board with The Bahamas Medical Association.
hrysippus 5 months, 1 week ago
Many of the drugs sold by the pharmacists are very dangerous and kill thousands of people every.year. Mariuana kills no one. This is the difference between it and other drugs. This is why in other countries cannabis dispensaries are usual way to dispense mariuana. The pharmacists seem like they just want the business to themselves, more money.
DWW 5 months, 1 week ago
Albania, Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Let us stop putting young men and women in jail for a little bit of plant. grow up bahamas. If you can gamble, drink alcohol, take pharmaceuticals, stand in parliament...
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