And what if all that were legally cultivated…?
Last week, Alex Lavin, a marijuana expert, and advocate from the US granted the press an interview to share his views about how the establishment of a marijuana export industry can be economically beneficial to Belize. He has offered to advise Kareem Musa as the Minister responsible for New Growth Industries about how to responsibly establish such an industry for a drug that is still illegal in many parts of the world.
He advised that it could be tied to the tourism industry to earn millions of dollars in government revenue. We asked Musa about a few of the ideas that Lavin floated last week:
Musa also had a few comments on the topic of industrial hemp manufacturing. Hemp grows from the same species of plant as marijuana, but it has 0.3% or less of the chemical that gets you high, which is called THC.
Hemp is grown in other parts of the world, not for recreational consumption, but to make food, building materials, textiles, paper, body care products, and more. Here's what Musa had to say about that aspect of the cannabis plant and its economic benefits:
As you heard, the Ministry intends to start having public discussions on the topic as early as next week.
