AG Signs Amendment to Misuse of Drugs Act, Possession of Small Amounts of Weed Is Legal

Tonight, if you're an adult in possession of 10 grams of marijuana or less, you are no longer committing a crime. That's because the Governor General signed the amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act into law yesterday.

The decriminalization amendment was passed by parliament last week, and on Tuesday, the National Evangelical Association of Belize came out swinging at the Government, asserting that this is a bad decision.

But, while the churches may criticize, the political parties gave it bi-partisan support, and so, the law is here, and unless or until Parliament decides to repeal it, marijuana possession in small quantities is legal.

This evening, Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte outlined what marijuana smokers can and cannot do:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"This week the National Assembly sent the papers to me for verification that all was in order. I signed off on it as attorney general and then it went to the Governor General telling the Governor General that everything is in order and I advised the Governor General to ascent and he so assented yesterday. So the document has been assented to and the law has been officially passed. It will go for a mass printing tomorrow at Print Belize and then from there it will go for distribution in the gazette, the next issue of the gazette, but the law is here. If you are an adult and you have in your possession 10 grams of marijuana or less, you are within the law and it's totally legal. You can be anywhere with those 10 grams or less except on school property."

"And so we are asking people - we pass the law to try and give people a break to say marijuana is your drug of choice, we are going to make a small portion of it legal, but like any other drug, please enjoy it responsibly and know that we want to keep it like any other legal drug away from children."

"You are not allowed to smoke it in public. So you have your 10 grams or less and you want to go home tonight and watch the game or do whatever you do at home, in your yard whatever, you are free to smoke your marijuana tonight and but like I said you cannot legislate parenting either, try not to consume any drug in the presence of your children, including cigarettes and alcohol."

Weed Not For Minors

So, as you heard, adults are allowed to be in possession of 10 grams of marijuana or less. You can smoke it in the privacy of your own home, or in your own yard. You are allowed to smoke it on someone else's premises, with the explicit permission of the owner of residence. If you do not have the permission of the homeowner, and you are caught smoking it, you can be charged. Also, you cannot take the drug with you unto the school compound. If you are caught, you will be warned and subsequent offenses will result in monetary fines.

And while the law relaxes the consequences of marijuana possession or consumption for adults, it's not the same thing for minors. The Attorney General was particularly forceful in making the point that minors caught in possession of the legal quantity of the drug, will be penalized. Here's how he explained the rationale behind that:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"We are going to be very strict on minors. The government is not promoting the use of marijuana and especially we are not promoting it, we are not legalizing it at all. If you are a minor and you are in possession of marijuana, you will have to be detained. You have to be arrested. It's just that when you go to court, the court will say good, given this new piece of legislation you young man or young lady we are going to put you through a counseling program. In the coming weeks or days, the minister of police is going to set forth some regulations that would say what the appropriate counseling is, what is the appropriate guidance. Until then the juvenile court will use whatever measures they use currently to punish minors who have committed offences."

"If we notice that a minor is a repeat offender, he keeps getting caught with possession or smoking marijuana, then the minister will also make regulations as to how that person can go through some kind of drug treatment program or recovery program and we will bring the parents into this. We are saying if the government has to keep using resources, because you are not being a good parent and we keep having to counsel and treat your child for an addiction, we are going to have you foot the bill or some of the expenses for doing so, because you are to keep your children away from marijuana, from cigarettes, from alcohol, but we are making it extra stringent when it comes to the marijuana."

Peyrefitte to Churches: Put Up, Light Up, Or Shut Up

We also took the opportunity to ask the Attorney General about the harsh criticism from the National Evangelical Association of Belize. These pastors believed that GOB completely ignored their objections, and the opposition of others who think that decriminalization is a mistake.

Peyrefitte pulled no punches when he responded saying that this was not a unilateral decision, as NEAB is suggesting it to be:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"Let me be very calm. I'll try to be very calm about the church the way I try very hard to be calm about the CCJ. Given what the church has been found guilty of in recent years - I think priests and pastors have no moral authority to try and judge anybody out here who wants to smoke marijuana. They just object for object sake."

Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"They suggest in their press conference a few days ago that the government ignored their packet in where 200 plus pastors voiced their discontent. Is that true?"

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"Daniel, let me stop you. They are pastors in their churches. They need to go preach in their churches. If you want to make legislation pastors, you put your name on a ballot, you run for office. If your party wins and you get into cabinet or you're the prime minister or a majority in the house, then you can pass whatever law you want to pass."

"You are a pastor, be a pastor. You want to be a law maker, then you come and you be a law maker. You offer yourself to the people. Of course we listen to what they said. We listen to what everybody had to say, but at the end of the day, as the law makers, the members of the house, the members of the senate had to then come up with what was best for everybody and for those who want to yelled and talk from the cheap seats, come down, put your name on a ballot, run for office and then you can pass the laws you want or repeal the law that we just passed. Until then just shut up."

AG Concedes Law Is Very Imperfect

But, while the Attorney General doesn't have much patience for the church's spin on how Government viewed their objection, the fact is that both sides share the concern that the law is imperfect.

It makes it legal to be in possession of small quantities of marijuana, but it does not address the purchase or sale of marijuana, and other activities like cultivation. So, basically, you can possess 10 grams, but you can't buy it, or grow it.

When we asked Peyrefitte about the mixed messages, he conceded that there are gaps. He explained the Government's position on those other activities which are still illegal:

Reporter
"You have people who are growing, you have people who are retailing [marijuana] and those 2 acts are illegal in the eyes of the law."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"Well you see Isani, we will see how it will work when it gets into practice. I have never shy away from the fact that the position of cabinet is that we have a wet foot, dry foot policy. If for those of you not familiar with that, the Cubans leaves Cuba in a boat - if you make it to the shores of the United States you are home free. If United States Coast Guard catches you out at sea, then they send you back to Cuba. So if you make it there, there is no questions asked, but you have to make it there. You cannot grow it, you cannot distribute it. It's not for commercial sale or trade. I saw somebody on facebook saying I have the good marijuana now and its legal you can come and buy it. That's completely illegal. But we are saying if you happen to have your 10 grams or less and you have been shifty enough to get to that point, then you're home free. It's not a perfect piece of legislation, but we had to start somewhere."

"We want to do or take baby steps in this process. You could go for full legalization which has its own problems and issues or we could keep the law as it was before and that obviously had its own issues and problems. So what do we do? We had to chop this proverbial baby in half. It's not perfect, far from perfect, but what we are asking is for those people who do smoke, to do it responsibly."

Decriminalization and The Weed Wars

There is also that school of thought that the decriminalization of small quantities of marijuana will fuel the weed wars in the streets, which police say has been driving city homicides.

The Attorney General said he doesn't buy that:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"With maximum respect to those who hold that position as some senior police officers hold that position. I think there is just a general sense of lawlessness in this country that's unacceptable at this point. You have people punching females' officers and people abusing other people like that. I will not buy hook line and sinker that it is a marijuana issue. Yes you can make the case that in the trade people would get from other dealers and the sell and then when they can't pay, then they run themselves into trouble. But that has nothing to do with marijuana itself. It has to do with anything. If you sell land and you don't pay who you need to pay, you run into trouble with people. Bad business practices, worthlessness, irresponsibility and downright thievery. We are living a type of lifestyle many of us that's dangerous and that's lawless and I don't think that it has to do with marijuana. Put it this way, marijuana as of a couple days ago was completely illegal and look at the violence we had in that short period of time before that. This is not going to make it worse. This is not going to bring a violence that wasn't already there. So I don't think that just the simple existence of marijuana or the legality of it or the pending legality of it a couple weeks ago was what made violence so high/ I think that we have become very, very violent."

Channel 7

Police legal adviser makes clarification about the legal possession of 10 grams of cannabis

Members of the public are no longer at risk of being charged or arrested if they are found with 10 grams or less of marijuana. They can now smoke marijuana in their homes or in other buildings where approval has been granted by the building owners.

However, according to the new law which decriminalizes possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana, it is still illegal to be found with cannabis in schools or other places of education. Senior Superintendent Bart Jones, legal adviser to the police, in an interview with us today, calls on policemen to be professionals: 10 grams, no charge.

Jones explained that if a person is stopped and searched and cannabis is found in his or her possession, and there is a doubt about the quantity, that person is to be taken to the nearest police station, where the cannabis will be weighed, and if it is 10 grams or less, the person is to be released, but if the cannabis weighs more than 10 grams, then the person will face charges for drug possession or drug trafficking, depending on the quantity.

Jones, in outlining how the law applies to possession of cannabis on a school compound, explained that if a parent goes to his child's school and he is searched and found with the drug, it will be taken away and he will be warned.

If a student is found with cannabis, it will be taken away and he or she will be warned by the school.

If the drug is found again in their possession, the Family Unit and the Social Services will be contacted and the student will have to attend counseling sessions.

Amandala