But, while the Attorney General doesn't have much patience for the church's spin on how Government viewed their objection, the fact is that both sides share the concern that the law is imperfect.
It makes it legal to be in possession of small quantities of marijuana, but it does not address the purchase or sale of marijuana, and other activities like cultivation. So, basically, you can possess 10 grams, but you can't buy it, or grow it.
When we asked Peyrefitte about the mixed messages, he conceded that there are gaps. He explained the Government's position on those other activities which are still illegal:
Reporter
"You have people who are growing, you have people who are retailing [marijuana] and those 2 acts are illegal in the eyes of the law."
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"Well you see Isani, we will see how it will work when it gets into practice. I have never shy away from the fact that the position of cabinet is that we have a wet foot, dry foot policy. If for those of you not familiar with that, the Cubans leaves Cuba in a boat - if you make it to the shores of the United States you are home free. If United States Coast Guard catches you out at sea, then they send you back to Cuba. So if you make it there, there is no questions asked, but you have to make it there. You cannot grow it, you cannot distribute it. It's not for commercial sale or trade. I saw somebody on facebook saying I have the good marijuana now and its legal you can come and buy it. That's completely illegal. But we are saying if you happen to have your 10 grams or less and you have been shifty enough to get to that point, then you're home free. It's not a perfect piece of legislation, but we had to start somewhere."
"We want to do or take baby steps in this process. You could go for full legalization which has its own problems and issues or we could keep the law as it was before and that obviously had its own issues and problems. So what do we do? We had to chop this proverbial baby in half. It's not perfect, far from perfect, but what we are asking is for those people who do smoke, to do it responsibly."
