The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville defended the legislation the Davis administration tabled last week to create a cannabis regime, insisting the bills are a “good start” and that further consultation is possible.

Although the administration consulted on the bills for almost eight months, many interest groups still have complaints about the bills.

The Rastafarian community is unhappy about paying for organisation or individual use licenses. Advocates for the recreational use of marijuana note that the bill does not facilitate this.

Dr Darville said officials met with Rastafarians and noted their concerns.

“As far as we were concerned, there could be potential further discussions, but a decision was made that we would go ahead with the legislation as was because just like the Rastafarians believing that they should not pay licensing fees, there are the groups who feel they should not be paying licensing fees,” he said.

“We’ll come back to it, but I think in general, the legislation needed to be laid in the House of Assembly.”

“We’ve had it out for public consultation for almost eight months and we’ve had back and forth with many different organisations. I think the time has come for us to debate this legislation; pass it. We could always come back to tweak it. “

“We have to form an authority. We have to have any electronic prescription and the list goes on and on. There will be other opportunities to discuss these finer details or who should be exempt from licences or who should not pay for this or that.”

Dr Darville said the Bahamas Cannabis Authority could look at what needs to be tweaked once the legislation is passed.

“There is no piece of legislation that’s going to satisfy everybody, but as far as we’re concerned, we think it’s fair and we are prepared to look at it again,” he said.

Regarding marijuana for recreational use, Dr Darville said the administration wanted to address the medical use of the drug.