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Marijuana legislation ‘by end of summer’

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder.

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder.

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder says legislation for marijuana legalisation should be concluded by the end of the summer.

He gave an update to reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a community legal aid project press conference.

“Our external council who’s been working with us on the legislation is working hand-in-hand with law reform. Now since the budget exercise is now concluding with respect to legislative events that’s back on stream and they have specific recommendations on how we should address it. Law reform is in the process of amending the legislation that was in place to address those concerns so that is back in process. There was a slight delay because of a shift in priorities but we’re certain, again by the end of the summer, that legislation should be concluded.”

The government said it would introduce a “regulatory framework” for the cannabis industry and to expunge the records of young people convicted of minor offences related to use of the drug as part of its five-year legislative agenda.

Communications director in the Office of the Prime Minister, Latrae Rahming, announced in January that the Davis administration is expected to bring legislation for a cannabis industry in the first quarter of this year.

In 2020, then Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis promised to have the relevant bill brought to Parliament by January 2021.

In May 2021, then-Attorney General Carl Bethel said once approved by Cabinet, marijuana legislation would be introduced to Parliament before the end of the budget year. Again, that did not happen.

Meanwhile, Mr Pinder noted that work continues on the nationalisation act to bring that to Cabinet by the end of the summer. Successive governments have sought to address the disparities between men and women passing on Bahamian citizenship to their children in two failed constitutional referendums.

“We should expect to see that this summer,” he said when asked about the draft citizenship legislation. “Certainly as you can appreciate law reform has been working feverishly with respect to the legislation for the budget and get that legislation in place so we can advance the budget in time, but we’re certainly working on the nationalisation act to bring that to Cabinet.”

Asked for a specific month in the summer for the legislation, he replied: “Well, it all depends on the demands of law reform, right. I think that we have advanced it before the budget before we had to shift to provide more focus on the bills that are being debated by the Prime Minister starting today, but I don’t see it taking more than a couple months to actually finalise.

“We are looking at what was done before, but as you would know that dealt with nationalisation, that dealt with asylum, that dealt with the Department of Immigration in general. So we’re pulling it apart then doing the reform to that so we do have the basis of the legislation in place... Within two to three months, we should be able to have that final before Cabinet.”

Successive governments have sought to address the disparities in men and women passing on Bahamian citizenship in two failed constitutional referendums. The Attorney General has previously said the Davis administration intends to address the issue through legislation instead of holding another referendum.

Comments

temptedbythefruitofanother 2 years, 4 months ago

"expunge the records of young people convicted of minor offences related to use of the drug as part of its five-year legislative agenda."

Since about 90% of RBPF "drug busts" are 15 year olds with a joint in their pocket it should be interesting to see what this new policy will do to the "crime statistics" they keep rolling out to justify their incompetent policing

tribanon 2 years, 4 months ago

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz........

carltonr61 2 years, 4 months ago

Just pray that the decision makers are using real world Marijuana evidenced based data from the medical, political, historical, financial and social values with current viewpoints. Law makers should at least themselves become fully Marijuana literate with who is at danger and under what home, medical, peer grouping, religious, medical, educational or social circumstances spectrum is strong or weak. Education is the key here. The primary introduction if Cannibas use is student and friends peer grouping mixed with low self esteem and a desire to belong, in the backdrop of home value systems risk vulnerabilities. Universally, the first rule is to never ever use it for all persons. Then we must understand the brain chemicals that impact mood, memory and stress our endo cannibinoid system. A collosal spectrum of outcomes are determined by our internal balance of those of our chemical makeup on our behavior from happiness to depression, lazy lazy lazy relaxation to stressful cortisol behavior. Just that Marijuana also impacts mood, memory and stress. When those three conditions are applied to age trajectory we get different negative positive outcomes.

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