The Council of Churches also expressed that they felt like they were being left out of the discussion surrounding the marijuana bill. In their press release, they said that they believed the bill would be detrimental to society and wanted the chance to debate it with GOB. Today, Minister of New Growth Industries, Kareem Musa, said GOB has been asking them to come to the table for a while.
Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs
"If we did not get push back from the church, something would be radically wrong with Belize. They are our social conscience, they are our morale compass, they will have an issue with this but it's all a matter of perspective and as politicians we have to look at perspectives. Let us look at the consumer, the consumer sees this as relief, the small farmer, the investor, the business man they see this as a profit. The government sees this as only practical given the circumstances that we now face where we have something that is decriminalized but you have no way of obtaining it and so the government sees it as only practical, that there is an opportunity for the country to put in place regulations because that is there the discussion is heading. A lot of the discussion is based on this legalization, it is not, it is actually regulation, it is ensuring that you have to be 18 years or older to actually get a card to qualify to use cannabis. These things are not currently in place, it's about getting much needed income for the country and of course then using those resources that we get to actually put it into programs, education programs about the damage of cannabis, its about putting it to various programs and education in our country. It's about putting it to rehab programs, which we don't currently have, so I always say there is a 30% segment of our population that smokes marijuana, we have to accept that because it's not even decriminalized, they can use it without even have to worrying about the police but now you have the traffickers and dealers who run the risk endangering their lives every single day to bring it in from Mexico, running from the police and it's creating warfare in the city. So, the whole point of this is to create structure and regulation and so of course, the church's perspective will be one that this lead to morale decay but it already exists, I'm not saying anything new."
Musa also said that their door is still open but that it's unlikely the government will change their minds about going forward with the bill.
Hon. Kareem Musa
"I saw that and I had to laugh but I can tell you we have reached out to various members of the council asking for a meeting as far back as January 8th to be precise but we never got an answer requesting that meeting but I'm so happy to hear now that they would like to have a sit down because that is the whole point, we want to have consultation. On the last occasion after the first reading there was a committee meeting as there normally is after a house meeting, nobody came to make representation of behalf of the church and I was surprised by that because I think they have a meaningful role to play as we move forward, especially when it comes to putting in the regulations to ensure that we're doing it responsibly, that is critical, we have to put regulation in a respectable and structured manner when it comes to this industry and I was hoping to get their input but it's not too late, we can still get their input between now and when it goes to final reading."
Reporter
"When the equal opportunities bill was first being discussed it was eventually pulled back because of this resistance from the church, do you fear something similar will happen when it comes to the marijuana bill?"
Hon. Kareem Musa
"I don't foresee that but I am certainly an individual and the rest of our government is, open doors, we want to consult, we want to have a discussion, this is what I've been asking for since January and I'm glad that we can now do that. What will come out after that discussion, we're not sure but I'm sure you're aware that this set for 2nd reading on the next occasion of the house, so I can't tell you what will happen after our discussions but we would want to hear their contribution to the discussion because is it that we're saying let us move several steps back and criminalize what we have already decriminalize, is that the suggestion that we now need to criminalize it once again, even though in 2017, we all went to the national assembly, both sides of parliament and agreed we ought to decriminalize, we've done that but I would like to hear the church's position, do you want us to now criminalize it again."
Still, Musa said they welcome input from the churches since they've been dormant for the past 13 years.
