HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC –The Bermuda government has pledged to continue work on a “world-class” legal cannabis regime for Bermuda six months after Britain turned down the legislation.
Attorney General Kathy Lynn Simmons told the House of Assembly on Tuesday during the Budget debate that the Ministry of Legal Affairs had budgeted around US$50,000 to be put into more work on the Progressive Labour Party’s (PLP) flagship legislation to legalize the drug in this British Overseas Territory, but did not give further details.
Legal cannabis was a PLP election platform pledge ahead of a snap poll in 2020 in which the government was returned to power with a landslide victory over the One Bermuda Alliance (OBA).
Simmons said Governor Rena Lalgie had denied royal assent to Bermuda’s cannabis legislation last September after it had been passed in the House of Assembly “as the UK government did not support the bill.”
“The bill outlined a framework for a regulated cannabis regime for Bermuda which would be world-class,” she added.
In her refusal last year to sign off on the legislation, Lalgie cited a clash with “obligations held by the UK and Bermuda under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances”.
At the time, Simmons called the decision an “archaic interpretation of the narcotic conventions.”
Premier David Burt had earlier warned that refusal to approve the cannabis legislation threatened to “destroy” the island’s relationship with Britain.
The cannabis bill, which the Senate had twice rejected, passed the House of Assembly early last year, but 12 of the 30 PLP MPs did not vote for it, although some were overseas at the time.
MPs heard on Tuesday that “forging ahead, the government continues to recognize the myriad benefits that cannabis reform can bring.”
The Attorney-General added: “The ministry headquarters will continue advancing this initiative.”
The renewed commitment towards legal cannabis was dismissed by Shadow Attorney-General Scott Pearman, who said the OBA had voted against the legislation “not once but twice.”
Pearman asked about allocating funds towards a seemingly stalled venture, “What does $50,000 get you these days?”
He added that the OBA was on record supporting medical cannabis and decriminalizing possession of small amounts.
But he criticized the bill as “not about the freedom to smoke cannabis if that is what you wish to do.”
“It was completely about money. In my opinion, it was used as a device to try to pick a fight with the UK. I’ve said that publicly before, and I repeat that.”
He added: “It’s unfortunate that the PLP, in its drive towards independence, can’t just come out and say they want freedom.
“Instead, they dress it up with niceties about constitutional reform.”
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