Tonight, if you're an adult in possession of 10 grams of marijuana or less, you are no longer committing a crime. That's because the Governor General signed the amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act into law yesterday.
The decriminalization amendment was passed by parliament last week, and on Tuesday, the National Evangelical Association of Belize came out swinging at the Government, asserting that this is a bad decision.
But, while the churches may criticize, the political parties gave it bi-partisan support, and so, the law is here, and unless or until Parliament decides to repeal it, marijuana possession in small quantities is legal.
This evening, Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte outlined what marijuana smokers can and cannot do:
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"This week the National Assembly sent the papers to me for verification that all was in order. I signed off on it as attorney general and then it went to the Governor General telling the Governor General that everything is in order and I advised the Governor General to ascent and he so assented yesterday. So the document has been assented to and the law has been officially passed. It will go for a mass printing tomorrow at Print Belize and then from there it will go for distribution in the gazette, the next issue of the gazette, but the law is here. If you are an adult and you have in your possession 10 grams of marijuana or less, you are within the law and it's totally legal. You can be anywhere with those 10 grams or less except on school property."
"And so we are asking people - we pass the law to try and give people a break to say marijuana is your drug of choice, we are going to make a small portion of it legal, but like any other drug, please enjoy it responsibly and know that we want to keep it like any other legal drug away from children."
"You are not allowed to smoke it in public. So you have your 10 grams or less and you want to go home tonight and watch the game or do whatever you do at home, in your yard whatever, you are free to smoke your marijuana tonight and but like I said you cannot legislate parenting either, try not to consume any drug in the presence of your children, including cigarettes and alcohol."
