Musa Says He Expected Pushback on Marijuana Bill

Kareem Musa

Following its presentation in the House of Representatives last week Friday, the conversation on the legalisation of marijuana as an economic opportunity has been getting pushback from various sectors, including the churches. Today, the media caught up with Minister of New Growth Industries Kareem Musa, who introduced the bill in the House. He says that the reaction was expected, but he believes the benefits of allowing cultivation, production and sale of ganja outweighs the cons.

Kareem Musa, Minister of New Growth Industries

“I totally respect the view of the churches. I am certainly not surprised by the position that they have taken and have been vocal about, in particular Pastor Wade; it is no secret how he feels about it. But at the same time, I come from a generation that can see the advantage of the economic upturn from something like this. Like I keep saying, we already have legislation in place since 2017 that made ten grams legal for you to have in your possession. But what that actually created was an entire irresponsible scenario whereby we don’t know where exactly you are to get this from – you can’t grow it and you certainly can’t buy it – and so it is just taking advantage of that. And I don’t really it as a religious issue.”

Duane Moody

“The leader of the opposition spoke to supporting the idea but that the smaller stakeholders that they are afforded the opportunity. Your take to that in terms of ensuring that the small man wah get a piece of the pie and not just these multinationals.”

Kareem Musa

“This particular legislation that we presented had the input of small individuals as well. I have been consulting a wide range of people and I have to say that this particular legislation is so unique because I have not seen it anywhere else in the world that has legalised the industry around marijuana include provisions inside the legislation for a social equity license. We are referring to it as the Cannabis Unity Project License and so there is actually going to be a Cannabis Unity Project Coordinator sitting on our board, on our commission that determines licenses to ensure that the small man is protected – not just in terms of cultivation, but if they want to come up with a brand, if they want to come up with a manufacturing or processing of oils, if they want to even have a dispensary.  As you know ninety-nine percent of Belizeans that are actually engaged in the trade are dispensaries so to speak, but we call them drug dealers right now. So we are already in that trade. So it is just to convert that and formalise that and turn it into a tax generating, income generating venture for the government.”