body,td,th { font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; }
And we also asked the Minister of Human Development her thoughts on the marijuana bill:
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"We have decriminalized the possession of a small amount of marijuana, it's a part of our culture, like for instance, I was at a funeral the other day and you could smell the weed but that is a conscious choice by adults. We do not and we should not have any situation where children are getting a hold of marijuana or any other kind of drug and the National Drug Abuse Control Council, all our Minister of Education and Human Development, all our partners, we have to make it first and foremost that we protect our Belizean children."
Reporter:
"You know your Cabinet colleague Minister Musa has been advocating for the marijuana bill, which has been put on hold, but with this incident, a lot of people who were already against it, they're using it as a, well, we shouldn't legalize marijuana. What are your thoughts on this now?"
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"I kind of take a middle of the road if you can put it that way, since it is already a fait accompli that there has been the decriminalization of a small amount of weed, I don't see a reason to go back and revoke that, but again, we don't want weed to get into the hands of young and vulnerable people. I think once there is a level of responsibility, we don't need to reverse that level of decriminalization but I say middle of the road because on the other hand it is an issue of the protection of children that children must be encouraged to stay away from drugs, so you might sound like you're having to balance it but I take the middle of the road on that. "
