Marijuana legislation to be introduced @ 10th Sitting of HoA
The ‘Cannabis Licensing Act, 2020’ is scheduled to be introduced and given a first reading when the Tenth Sitting of the Second session of the Fourth House of Assembly (HoA) is held at Save the Seed Energy Centre in Duff's Bottom, Tortola, today, June 19, 2020.
According to the Order Paper released by HoA spokesman, Mr Linton V. Leonard, the bill will be brought to the House by Premier and Minister of Finance, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1).
Government has previously said it is seeking to cash in on the medical marijuana industry as another source of revenue and is looking at having 100 Virgin Islanders use 50 acres of land to plant cannabis.
Premier Fahie, back in January 2020, said his Virgin Islands Party (VIP) government was also exploring ways to get established medical marijuana companies to enter the VI with the aims of helping to innovate the industry.
"That's going to open up the BVI tremendously, and what incentives will we give to those investors, whether they are local or foreign, we also working on those," he said.
In July of last year, Minister for Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr The Honourable Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) had said the previous administration had drafted a bill on the legalisation of marijuana and that he was reviewing it.
Meanwhile, the US Virgin Islands (USVI) has also been looking at using marijuana as an additional revenue source.
Lucrative marijuana industry
The US marijuana industry is worth billions of dollars, and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Ten US states have legalised recreational marijuana use, and 33 have legalised medicinal use.
According to Market Insider in May 2019, Marijuana Business Factbook estimates the legal-marijuana industry's economic impact in the US was between $20 billion and $23 billion in 2017. It estimates the economic impact could reach as high as $77 billion by 2022.
Another study estimated the marijuana industry in the US would grow to at least 330,000 jobs by 2022, a higher number than the 268,000 employees at US steel and iron mills.
Investors poured more than $10 billion into the North American marijuana industry in 2018, according to the Associated Press. That's twice the total amount invested in the previous three years.
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20 Responses to “Marijuana legislation to be introduced @ 10th Sitting of HoA”
Then, license distributors (just like liquor licences) at the Pier Park and tourist (and local distributors too!) areas for edibles, smokeables and infused drinks.
Sit back and watch the tourist numbers skyrocket and replace financial services as our primary pillar.
Next watch the numbers at Balo go down because we're not putting our young men away for a little weed.
WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO PLANT 6 TREES A PERSON A FAMILY
WALK WITH UP TO 2 OUNCE A PERSON
THEN WE GONA HAVE A BLESS VI
CANT WAIT