Caye Caulker Prepares for Historic Referendum as Voters Head to the Polls October 8

It’s the first time in Belize’s history that a referendum is being held only in one part of the country. That place is the small island of Caye Caulker. On October 8, the 1,454 registered voters on the island will cast their votes at three polling stations in one location at the Caye Caulker RC School. The votes will also be counted there. At a press conference this morning hosted by ‘the Legalize it Caye Caulker Movement”, Minister of New Growth Industries, Kareem Musa spoke about what the path may reveal after the referendum is completed.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “It will require a specialized legislation that would be the Caye Caulker Cannabis regulation. And I’m sure Ilya will now present several proposals that he would want to see amended in the current legislation because he has been consulting with his islanders and they have concerns, and they want to see certain things in the legislation. Obviously there is no guarantee that Cabinet will accept it or the House will accept it, but that is where it starts. A consideration of proposals to amend the legislation. And what would that mean? That would mean the entire country continues with 10 grams legal, but the island of Caye Caulker  would have a cultivation facility and it would have a dispensary, and it would have an area for restaurant licenses. It would have regulations that would be solely for Caye Caulker until we go national.”

 Musa continued to state that it will bring more economic stability to the island by creating new job opportunities. Ilya Rosado, elaborated on the licenses that could be introduced.

Ilya Rosado: “The different types of licenses,  which include cultivation licenses,  processing,  private brand licensing,  dispensaries, which are of course points of sale,  delivery licenses, and  what I think  one of the most uh important for myself  and for my community is uh the medicinal aspect; so medicinal licenses for uh pharmacies and people who want to conduct research. Of course, there’s restaurant and consumption, lounge licenses, event licenses.  And just to be clear with events, what we’re talking about is events where we are conducting these events in enclosed areas, right?  As one of the things that we want to avoid is not having uh other people uh having to be aware of the smoke and the smell and everything like that. So to be able to get these licenses, we need responsible regulation so that we can do these activities as adults, but also with minimal changes to the community.  And finally, we are planning as well and proposing an analytical license where people with the right training can have labs that will test for standard safety and of course quality.”

Belize’s projection with this new industry, International Cannabis Advocate Lorena Beltra of Mexico tells us more.

LORENA ON REFERNDUM

Lorena Beltra, International Cannabis Advocate: “We know that where cannabis has legalized in different countries and cities and states, we see an increase, for example, in tourism. A study by Benzinga shows in Colorado, where after legalization of cannabis, tourism increased 25%. And we went and looked into all different data out there about tourism. There was no place, no city, no nothing where tourism decreased after regulation. It actually increased. And let’s talk about the economic impact. Of course, we’ve seen this economic impact, job opportunities in every place that this has been legalized.”