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And that's why Minister of New Growth Industries Kareem Musa says regulation of the marijuana industry is what's needed. We challenged him saying that many will now take this as an opportunity to shut down any discussion of legalization, and he said that what we should be talking about is the urgent need for regulation:
Jules Vasquez
"Now there is widespread societal terror about what marijuana intoxication can do. It creates a sense of, uh, societal fear of how pernicious and, um, harmful marijuana can be. "
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Yeah, I, I fully agree with you, Jules, that at this point in time, following such a scary situation like this involving children, nobody, absolutely, nobody, nobody, not even the minister, has an appetite to even be discussing that at this time. So it is obvious that the advocates against legalization will take this narrative to a next level. But what they're really arguing is not anti legislation. They're arguing anti-regulation. The reason why we have this played out is exactly because we do not have any regulations in place. It's not anti legalization because Cannabis possession, as we all know, is legal in Belize. It has already been legalized. But the moment that you do not have regulations in place that protect children, that ensure the quality, that test these products that actually have labels on them,"
"So what you are seeing right now is the exact reason, Jules, why there needs to be regulation."
Musa said that in the current global climate where marijuana is being increasingly legalized, weed is now flooding into he country in various forms:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"the wild, wild west of cannabis. That is what Belize has become. And so you have individuals now and I confirmed this with the forensic director, that since 2017 there has been a sharp increase in the importation of cannabis to Belize, because we do not have the industry regulated. And so now everybody is out there selling cannabis, and it is only in situations where we detect them, that customs detect it that we can actually impound that suspected cannabis."
The NFSS says that over the past 5 years, about a dozen cases of cannabis edibles have been tested at its Forensic Laboratory.
