Another Caribbean Country Looks To Legalize Marijuana

News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C. Tues. Mar. 30, 2021: Another Caribbean country is looking at decriminalizing the use of marijuana amid the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grenada is reportedly looking to legalize the controversial herb, according to local reports. The Marijuana Decriminalization Committee has confirmed that proposed legislation looking towards decriminalizing is presently before the Cabinet of Ministers for discussion. The next step will be public consultation.

Agriculture Minister Peter David is one of three members tasked with coming up with the best way Grenada can enforce aspects of the CARICOM’s Marijuana commission report.

In December 2020, Grenada Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell, in a public meeting locally, said the country will develop its own model for cultivating, distribution, supplying and use of marijuana as it moves forward to enforce an aspect of the Marijuana Commission report

The hope is that marijuana use for recreational purposes will be decriminalized and or legalized.

“Just like alcohol, like cigarette, marijuana days for decriminalizing, for legalizing, is coming too, that is a fact, the question is how it is done, what extend we go in dealing with the law as it relates to that drug use is something that will come forward,” Prime Minister Mitchell said during that town hall meeting.

Cannabis reform is picking up momentum in the Caribbean. In recent years, a handful of island nations have made strides to regulate the production and distribution of medical cannabis: Jamaica, Barbados, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Antigua and Barbuda have respectively approved medical cannabis cultivation, while draft laws are in development in each Bermuda, Trinidad, and Tobago, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. The 20-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), a regional coalition of 15 independent nations and five dependencies. has been instrumental in shaping the conversation of cannabis reform in the Caribbean.

Benefits from economic development and job creation were cited as additional incentives.