A petition by the anti-cannabis lobby and its sympathizers has reportedly garnered the signatures of the requisite 10% of registered electors, the first step toward triggering a referendum to challenge the recently passed (but not yet effected) Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Control and Licensing Bill, 2022.
Following its success, the anti-cannabis lobby is expected to present its petition to the Governor General (GG), and from there the petition will go to the Chief Elections Officer, whose office will scrutinize the signatures of the petitioners to make sure the referendum requirements are met, a process that should be completed within two months. If all is in order, the GG will issue a Writ of Referendum, and within 30 days Belizeans should vote on the matter. Under the Belize Referendum Act Chapter 10 Revised Edition 2020, a simple majority decides the outcome.
Many Belizeans welcome the idea of a referendum, but it is not written in stone that there will be one, since the critical vetting of signatures is yet to be completed. Belizeans were never afforded an official vote when Oceana delivered more than 18,000 signatures on a petition in 2011 to trigger a referendum on offshore oil exploration. Oceana took the matter to court after a large number of petitions were struck out by the Elections and Boundaries Department (EBD), but was unsuccessful.
In 2012 the organization held the “People’s Referendum”, an unofficial exercise in which over 30,000 Belizeans voted resoundingly against offshore oil exploration. In the face of the massive showing, GOB announced a ban on offshore drilling shortly after.
In 2014 there was a failed attempt to trigger a recall vote on former government minister, Elvin Penner. Mr. Penner, the then representative for Cayo Northeast, had been removed from Cabinet after a scandal in the Immigration Department, and the main opposition party (the PUP) moved to have him recalled and a new election held in the division he represented. The PUP and its sympathizers thought they had the required 30% of electors in the division to trigger the action, but after scrutinizing their list the EBD declared that it was 79 signatures short.
It’s debatable how long the anti-marijuana lobby’s celebration would last if they got the votes in a referendum to knock down the new law. GOB could go back to the drawing board and after some revision introduce a new bill. Some would consider that bad faith on the GOB’s part, and they would be right to feel that way, if the cannabis law didn’t have so many parts – recreational smoking and consumption of edibles by locals and tourists, medicinal use, and export.
It isn’t known how much support for the referendum came from persons whose primary concern was that the export of marijuana would threaten our banking system. Former Attorney General (AG), Michael Peyrefitte has stated that that was one of the reasons the previous government didn’t go further than decriminalizing 10 grams of marijuana. Three-term prime minister, Dean Barrow (2008-2020); Lord Michael Ashcroft, the owner of the largest bank in the country; and Pastor Louis Wade, who is probably the lead advocate for the anti-marijuana lobby, share the position of the former AG.
Responding to this fear, the Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries, Hon. Kareem Musa, has said that the legal medical cannabis industry in Jamaica isn’t causing problems for the banking system in that country, and that cannabis will remain a “cash industry” in Belize until the US federal government eases up on its restrictions.
Referendum seekers who want to see recreational marijuana prohibited in Belize might not have compared the new law with the old. If the new law is defeated, it is expected that we will revert to the amendment of the Misuse of Drugs Act that allowed for the decriminalization of 10 grams of marijuana in 2017. The amendment allowed persons 18 years and older to use the drug, with some restrictions.
Then Home Affairs Minister, Wilfred Elrington, introduced that Bill to the House of Representatives, and speaking on it, former Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Elodio Aragon, Jr., said that the amendment dealt with the “mere possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana”, that such possession would not be a criminal offense “unless possession occurs on the premises of a school or other educational institution”, that smoking the herb was okay “where it is done in the person’s own home or other specified accommodation with the owners’/operators’ permission.” (quotes from 7News files)
As it relates to local users, the new law is extremely tough. Under the new law, everyone who wants cannabis for personal use has to be 21 years or older, and be in possession of a Cannabis Program Identification Card (CPIC), for which they must pay $50. This card allows the marijuana user to purchase the drug from the Central Nursery or a licensed dispensary, to grow two plants, and to have 28 grams of cannabis product. A holder of a CPIC who is found in violation of the law will be fined $1,000 in the first instance, and $5,000 for any subsequent offence.
The apparent single advantage of the new law for local users of marijuana is that greater control of the product should provide them some protection from unscrupulous foreign growers and local dealers who would adulterate their products. A real hurdle for users who don’t grow their own marijuana (two plants) is Section 15(1) of the Act, which states that “licensed activity shall not take place within a mile of an educational institution or a residential area.”
In a previous discussion on cannabis, we stated that we must watch the process “every step of the way, to ensure the best for our people, with special emphasis on our children and youth to help them stay away from drugs and alcohol.” At the Senate sitting at which the Bill was approved, lead Government senator, Hon. Eamon Courtenay, said, after serious concerns were raised by the social partner and opposition senators, that there would be further consultation and amendment of the law.
In Canada, a country which in 2018 legalized recreational marijuana for persons 18 years and older (19 years and older in some areas), the Canadian government published a factsheet which advises young people that the best way to protect their health is to not “use cannabis.” The factsheet said that young persons are more likely to be harmed by the drug “because your brain is still developing until around the age of 25.”
Our aim must be to discourage marijuana use, especially among our youth, and the tools available to us are education, meaningful intervention, and well thought-out laws that the vast majority of us can support. The GOB has promised more scrutiny of the new law. As it stands right now, it is pro-export, and tough on local users. We need to get it right.