And while the Minister is wary of the CDC's latest recommendation, he's diving head first into the CBD industry.
Pictures surfaced on social media of Musa visiting a hemp farm, part of the orientation as he continues to try and establish a hemp industry in Belize. He explained that the farmer was given a license to cultivate hemp and is now using it to the fullest.
Hon Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"As you know, in 2017, a lot of the focus was on the decriminalization of the possession of ten grams of cannabis. What a lot of Belizeans did not realize was that what was also included in that piece of legislation in 2017 is the legalizing of the cultivation of industrial hemp. As you know, industrial hemp has many uses, whether its not make fabric, material, it's used as a food source, as medicine for the CBD oils and so under the last administration, 36 industrial hemp licenses were issued. Our administration has not issued any new licenses, and so if you recall, I had mentioned out of the 36, none of them were operating. Well the good new is, one small farmer, his name is Cesar Godinez, I believe the name of his company is Belize Tropical Hemp Limited. He operates a small farm out of the Valley of Peace where he is growing industrial hemp and he intends to extract CBD oils from the industrial hemp plant, in addition he plans to make industrial hemp paper products like plates, cups, straws, that kind of thing. So he has a dual purpose in his industrial hemp, and it's not for smoking, it's not for the THC content, as far as I'm aware, it is actually to extract the medicine, the CBD oil, he told me that he's working with some doctors out of the US and so he'll be exporting the oils to the US. So like I said, it's a very multifaceted plant, with so much opportunities, and so the Ministry just took the opportunity to go out there to give the support and see how we can assist him as he moves along with his industrial hemp plantation."
