And the minister also gave us an update on the misuse of drugs act. He explained that the Senate had some concerns and so they had to go back to the figurative drawing board. But it will be returning to the HOR soon. Still, he added that those who have an interest in the industry just need to be patient for the time being, until the bill is passed through completely, before jumping on the venture. He emphasized that there's still a lot of work left to be done - despite the leader of the opposition saying differently when he appeared on "Drink Champs."
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries
"As you would recall, the amendments that we had made to the misuse of drugs act had been passed in the House of Representatives, it was entirely supported by our side of the House and I believe three out of the four parliamentarians on the opposition had supported it including the leader of the opposition but when he got to the senate, concerns were raised in terms of the structure of the bill, they preferred to see it as a standalone bill and so what we did, we just extracted what was contained in the misuse of drug act and created a cannabis regulation and licensing bill and so that was taken back before cabinet for approval as a standalone bill and we will start the process over in the house of Representatives on the next occasion and hopefully we still have the support of the opposition moving forward and hopefully that addresses the concerns of the social partners senators that had raise those issues at the Senate level."
"It's really an exciting time for a new industry for Belize, I try to encourage them let us wait until the legislation is passed before we incorporate these companies and obviously there is going to be a very rigorous application process that they will have to fill out as well for approval by the commission before they can actually get to start working so yes why as minister it is definitely encouraging to see the level of excitement we still have to be very mindful that the law is what it is at this time even though the leader of the opposition is saying we have legalized weed, that's not the case, we are not there yet."
