AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums About Belize Nation Laws & Taxes Marijuana Referendum Delayed Due To Concern of Commercial Banks

The Prime Minister confirmed today that the referendum on marijuana legalization in Belize has been delayed.

The Governor-General still has one more week to issue a Writ of Referendum, but observers took note of the fact that no formal writ has been publicized, even though the churches successfully triggered a referendum under the Referendum Act. The law says that she must issue that Writ within 30 days, but the Prime Minister told the press this morning that at this time, the referendum is on indefinite pause due to concerns from the Belizean banks about marijuana legalization.

Here's the conversation on that topic:

Paul Lopez - Ch 5
"The delay in the marijuana referendum did you guys stall the bill because you don't want to spend that 5 million." Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"Well, it's not a matter of stalling -They're calling me; I have to go. So, this is the last question. With the issue, what happened is that you are the ones who told me, you know, $5 million to spend at this time. And then also some members from the churches kind of reached out indirectly to say, well, they're concerned about it. We had a meeting with them, and in the meeting, they agreed for us to be able to hold it, to stall it. What we have agreed in Cabinet is we're going to add -Well, it's not an amendment because it's not a law yet. But we're going to add a new clause into the bill to state -because the bill is ready to enact. It's gone through the Senate. We are going to bring it to the House to put an amendment to the bill to say that whenever, before this is enacted into law, we must hold a referendum based on what the churches have asked. That is one. But, the irony of the whole thing is that we were not ready to put this into law yet. Remember, we could have done this already. But a few weeks ago, Minister Coye, in a meeting with the Banking Association, they were raising some concerns. They said, listen, if we legalize this, in the United States, federally, it is still an illegal substance. And it could affect the corresponding banking relationships that they have. So they were asking if we could put a pause on it until we could address this issue. So, that is why we had it on pause because we have to address this issue. So even before we go to that, we will have to address this. Once this is addressed that we would not have a problem or find a way how we could deal with that; then, we will inform the churches and everyone that know we would be calling the referendum." As viewers will remember, the press persistently challenged Kareem Musa, the Minister of New Growth Industries, on the effect it could have on Belizean banks, and he insisted that a local industry could exist in Belize as a cash-only industry.

When we sought him out for comment on the Prime Minister's announcement today, he told us quote, "As I previously mentioned, it would have to be a cash industry like everywhere else. Jamaica, Antigua, St. Vincent, and Trinidad are all finalizing their legalization…. When it is federally legal in the US, then the banks here would accept cannabis funds. Until then, it's a cash industry or a community bank with no correspondent banking relations would have to be set up… I think of greater concern is the very high cost of the referendum." End quote.

Channel 7

Churches Merciful On Pausing Marijuana Referendum

As we've been reporting, the referendum on marijuana is stalled.

Minister of New Growth Enterprises Kareem Musa insisted that the reason why there will be no legalization and no referendum on the matter is that the referendum will be very costly. He also conceded that the concerns about the potential negative impacts on correspondent banking relations were also a reason for the shutdown of this major legislative push from the Briceno administration.

Well, today - the government more or less threw in the towel in a joint statement with the churches.

That statement arrived this evening and acknowledges that the churches triggered a referendum, but also concedes that, quote, "The Bill will not be brought into force until the issues in relation to the banking of proceeds connected to cannabis are resolved because this would otherwise have a negative effect on Belize's domestic banks' correspondent banking relationships." End quote. So, Senator Bishop A. Moses Benguche has put in writing that the churches agree to the postponement of the National Referendum.

They will now write to the Governor General on behalf of the petitioners and the Government of Belize, to ask her to defer the issuing of the Writ of Referendum until a date to be determined.

For its part, Government will introduce legislation at the next sitting of the House of Representatives to mandate the holding of a National Referendum on the matter of The Bill.

Channel 7

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