By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A medical marijuana advocate is arguing that the Government “missed” its chance to produce a near-perfect law as he gave the Cannabis Bill a 65 percent score.

Terry Miller, chairman of the non-profit Bahamas Cannabis Research Institute (BACARI), told Tribune Business that - while he supported legalising medical cannabis - the Bill and associated reforms that were debated in the House of Assembly earlier this week could have been much better.

He added: “I am a supporter in principle that medical cannabis should be legalised. They should not have missed. They had enough time to create the perfect Bill, and they created a Bill that’s probably a 65 out of 100 [when] they could’ve gotten a 95 out of 100.”

Mr Miller said the Cannabis Bill should have mandated greater Bahamian ownership of entities engaged in analytical testing, manufacturing and medical marijuana research. The Bill sets a floor, or limit, where these ventures must be at least 30 percent Bahamian owned, but he argued that this minimum threshold should have been doubled to 60 percent.

While the foreign joint venture partners should be allowed to negotiate a higher percentage of the profits generated by their investment, Mr Miller said: “We recognise that in this industry we are going to need foreign guidance, foreign assistance, foreign investments, foreign expertise, but that should be done in such a way that the ownership is the principle guiding those partnerships.

“There are legal methods that we can use whereby the Bahamian owns a minimum 60 percent and the foreign entity can receive up to 80 percent of the profits, which will reduce over time so they can get a return on their investment.” Mr Miller’s position largely mirrors that of the Free National Movement (FNM), which argued that Bahamians should have majority ownership in all medical marijuana ventures.

He added that the industry should be considered a natural resource that has the potential to benefit The Bahamas economically and create opportunities for local entrepreneurs. 

“This industry should be looked at in this stage as a natural resource. We should be forward thinking now. This industry has the potential for creating a huge number of jobs, new skills and new training for thousands and thousands of Bahamians,” Mr Miller said.

“We should be negotiating not ownership, but the profits. When I make an investment I don’t have to get full ownership; I need to make sure my investment makes money. If you can see that over ten years I made ten times my investment, that’s a fair investment even though I would not have ownership of this industry. I would have made my money many times over.”

Prime Minister Philip Davis KC, though, said the 30 percent minimum Bahamian ownership stipulation in certain segments was designed to ensure this jurisdiction remains competitive versus its rivals. He added that other Caribbean nations permit up to 70 percent foreign ownership, which is why these ownership thresholds were chosen, with The Bahamas also seeking to attract foreign direct investment (FDI).

Mr Miller, though, maintained that the industry should be “for the people” and encouraged more ownership by the Bahamian public. He said: “This product has been here for many years, and many persons have been persecuted as a result, and we are now deregulating it so that it is almost a completely new industry.

“It has been a black market industry for a long time, but as a legal industry, it’s new. This one should have been for the people; not for just the people who have money but the average Bahamian who wants that ownership in this industry.”

Mr Miller added that BACARI was not invited to present its views on the Cannabis Bill to the Government but it “pushed” its viewpoint by sending in letters.

He said: “We had to push our input in because no one ever came to us and asked for our input. With all the workshops and town meetings that we held out of our pockets, with no support from government, no government agents has come to us and said what are your ideas. So we had to write documents and push our views.”