The Bermuda government is seeking public feedback for its cannabis legalization proposal, the Royal Gazette reports. The proposal includes a legal possession and purchase age of 21, capping purchases at seven grams, seven types of licenses, and the creation of the Cannabis Advisory Authority which would issue licenses and set regulations.
According to the report, the industry licensing fees would be issued for retail, cultivation, research, import, export, and manufacturing. The fees would be designed to help the economy but would not be expensive.
Attorney General Kathy Simmons said in a video announcement that the proposal “will provide for a regulated cannabis program which has been hybridized to meet Bermuda’s requirements while modeling the best available legal provisions in Canada, both provincial and federal, and to a lesser degree, examples from the Caribbean.”
The government gathered feedback for a legalization bill last year but there were some concerns about the regulations outlined in that proposal and that broader reforms were needed than what was contained in the bill.
“The Government has made a commitment to progressively liberalize cannabis laws in Bermuda and to create economic opportunities for citizens wishing to participate in a regulated cannabis scheme. This policy has developed in response to significant public sentiment that the formerly proposed medicinal cannabis reforms were too complex and were unlikely to generate sufficient economic opportunities to justify moving ahead.” – the Government of Bermuda post on the Citizen’s Forum
The public comment period on the reforms end on July 3.
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