Last week the churches submitted to the Governor General a petition containing - they say - the signatures of close to 20 thousand registered voters. They are requesting a referendum on the legalization of marijuana as a full fledged industry in Belize.
And that date also marked a sharp about - turn for the government who had been publicly icy about the petition, and even suggested that Cabinet could shoot down those signatures with its executive prerogative.
Instead, last week, a pubic statement welcomed the signatures and spoke favorably of a referendum. So, to keep it in biblical terms, what inspired the sort of Damascene conversion in Belmopan. We asked the Minister of new Growth Industries:
Jules Vasquez
"You said, a) parliament just passed it, will of the people. b) it's going to be very expensive and c) they can proposed a referendum, but cabinet can disposed of the idea, because it is a cabinet decision. However, when the signatures were submitted, there was a change of tone, a contrition."
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries
"You've said everything perfectly right, but then you try to skew things that cabinet made a decision that it was going to move hell or high water against this thing - absolutely not. What you have to understand when I said Cabinet was going to make a decision then, and I say again now, because Cabinet has made a decision, is that we would give the church time. They were going through a very onerous exercise you know to get all of these signatures. We were supposed to sign the law on the twenty second. The Governor General was supposed to sign that into law. By that date the church had not come up with the signatures. But, you can't just leave them out in the cold after doing all of that work to say we are still going to sign it into law. We are not the previous administration. We believe in democracy. We believe in the referendum act and if they are in compliance with the referendum act then we will have a referendum on this issue."
"10% of our population, it is alleged have signed on to a petition and so a lot of those individuals, although I don't believe any Rastafarians signed on to it, as they are alleging, a lot of those individuals are not necessarily church goers or anything like that and so its just respecting the democracy that we all have in this country under the referendum act. According to the referendum act, there is a 60-day vetting process that is now taking place, thereafter there is a 30-day period within which the governor general issues a writ of referenda, so we are looking at 90 days if there is going to be a referendum. I have heard, I am not in the business of holding or paying for referendums, but I have heard the figure of 2 million dollars coming out of the Ministry of Public Service as to what it would possible cost for a referendum."
Jules Vasquez
"You know that a 10% trigger has never succeeded and the reason it has never succeeded is because it is impossible to verify, it goes by signatures and it's impossible to verify signatures, because, people, although there was recently a re-registration, people signatures changed and that's why the last trigger which was for a recall had failed. It's very hard to do. It's a tough threshold to meet."
Kareem Musa
"I think that particular signature process had political bias and motivation behind it."
Jules Vasquez
"Because it was the Elvin Penner recall. It would never accuse the election and boundaries office of that, sir."
Kareem Musa
"I am not accusing them; I am accusing the United Democratic Party."
Jules Vasquez
"But that would mean there are instrumentalizing E and B office."
Kareem Musa
"Well, I don't know the details of it. I just know that that is an entirely different process. This is a referendum based on an issue that is whether we have a legal cannabis industry, not tied to any politics whatsoever and so..."
Jules Vasquez
"The scrutineers may not be as strict."
Kareem Musa
"I think they will be as strict. I'm just saying they wont be influenced by any politician to do one thing or the next."
Jules Vasquez
"We hear this war on drugs. You think a lot of the antipathy within some moral high towers is based on race and class."
Kareem Musa
"I would not want to say anything like that. You said that. Please have that recorded that Jules said that. I don't agree with that. I think that the churches have a genuine concern, but at times I do feel that they are detached from the actual on the ground reality on what it is that's fuelling murders, particularly in Belize City. Yes, a lot of it results in retaliation, but I think they are out of touch with what is actually happening on the ground in Belize City and how much an industry like the cannabis industry can help places like Belize City, instead of just looking at the bad, I think they should look at some of the economic benefits that could come to the various communities and understand like I said weed is not going anywhere. It is a part of our lives, part of normal Belize and as with other parts of the world. We are not unique when it comes to marijuana and so it's going to be with us, but let us find structures that are in place, let us look at legislation that can help a very bad situation to become better."
