Back in May we told you that Councillor Ilya Rosado was collecting signatures for a petition to trigger a referendum in Caye Caulker. That referendum would be to vote on the legalization of marijuana on the island.
Well, he got the required 25% - or 400 - registered voters and on October 8th, the residents will be able to vote.
But does that mean that marijuana will automatically be legalized in Caye Caulker? Does the constitution even allow for the legalization in only one small part of Belize?
We asked the area rep, Minister Andre Perez, for his thoughts.
Andre Perez, Minister of the Blue Economy
"I would like to say that that is something, it's a right. If you believe you have something there, the due process is going and it's a democratic country, if you feel you want to push an agenda which has been done and triggered a referendum in Caye Caulker, I for one will look at what happens. Legally, if that is what is called for, we have to go for it. I'm not too sure how we can look at it, whether it is something that can be done for one little island, there is still some legal ramifications that I am not aware of, we have to look at that. But if we want to look at the positive side, perhaps that could be, to quote what one of the ministers said, it can be a form of a litmus test, we can get feeling out there using that referendum to see what is the feeling out there, the sentiment of the entire country, that can be used as. Litmus test so we'll see what happens."
"And then we are looking at the other side as well that if this referendum is going to happen, how much will it cost, does it set a precedence in terms of whether other people want to do different referendums and that is costing us taxpayers' money, remember taxpayers money is going to be spent for one referendum."
Courtney Menzies:
"Do you think that if it were to be legalized in Caye Caulker and San Pedro specifically because we've seen a lot of tourists coming in and they get charged at the airport for bringing in marijuana, because they don't check the laws, it's legal in their country, so do you feel like it would alleviate some of those problems that maybe more people would want to come?"
Andre Perez, Minister of the Blue Economy
"I want to address that, when I read the news about people being arrested or people coming with a couple grams. I look at it and say, do we really need to make a big deal about that if someone comes in with it? Because remember here it's decriminalized for a certain amount of grams but they bring it in illegally so certainly we could look at that way there that it could benefit in that way."
The question that will be put to the people is, "Should the Government of Belize pass legislation to create a responsible, regulated and taxable legal cannabis industry on the island of Caye Caulker with a portion of the revenue going directly for the benefit of Caye Caulker and its residents?" Again, the referendum will be on October 8th.
