The Bahamas has a thriving Marijuana industry. I read about it in the legal section every day. Importation, growing, distribution, financial services; not to mention the Policing authorities that chase all these activities. Hundreds if not thousands of jobs that exist today; albeit illegal. The idea that the Bahamas is going to export flower or extract is ridiculous on it's face. Economies of scale in the legalized west make this impossible. The industry will be like liquor; produced and taxed globally to the point of equilibrium. That means creating Brands and marketing will be the only way to sell globally. The local market is small but may sustain a grower or two. If what the Bahamas needs now is better quality marijuana and byproducts is an open question. Contrary to what Terry Miller says, this will be a local industry like water bottling or brewing beer. As such it will face the same industrial issues that current Bahamian companies face; Energy costs, labor issues, security, machinery breakdown and parts availability, salt air corrosion, and more.

Your 4th paragraph is a fine bit of literature. Sarkis just happened to live in Lyford Cay? The fact that he is surrounded by a community of his peers had nothing to do with his residency? This could have happened in Haiti? Also, when someone invests the equivalent of 8-10% of the yearly National GDP in one project, it is the height of ignorance to call that an "impact". It is proportionally out of scale with virtually any other foreign investment made on Earth in the past decade.

You don't know what you don't know so I will give the previous Governments some slack. There is however, no excuse for not acting now. Hire an international IP lawyer and fix the problem. Ask MIT, Harvard, or John's Hopkins who they use, and call them. Simple.

Decouple the currency from the USD and let the chips fall where they may. Eliminate all import duties and institute an income and asset tax. A good 50%-80% devaluation in the Bahamian dollar will follow.
The local legacy rich will get a severe haircut and rich foreigners will stay away because of the taxes. Then the only foreigners to complain about will be short term visitors. We can tolerate them as they are leaving soon.
Most Bahamians aren't travelling anywhere anytime soon so no need for a strong Bahamian dollar.
If you are serious about getting rid of foreigners and local rich whites, go ahead and take the necessary steps.

It's a good thing you said "a net drain on society", not the economy. This is therefore subjective and your opinion. You are entitled to it.

LOL!!!!..... the bible!!! ....lol, lol..... a book written by men and you live your life by it? Who needs help?
Does it ever strike you that the 10 commandments were written by entitled men wishing to perpetuate the politics of the day?
Don't steal from me. Don't touch my wife. Don't be jealous because I have more. Relax; when we die, you will inherit the earth. I could go on.
Stop believing fairy tales before you lecture someone on their conduct. Look at the time you wasted on this nonsense man. What education level do you have?

Agree with the comments here. Many differences for better and worse. NZ is not a major transit point.
The main reason I think NZ was able to do this is they have the habits built in over decades of protecting their agriculture sector. Let me tell you what happens when you land in NZ, to stay or connect:
The aircraft is stopped and everyone remains in their seat while the cabin is fumigated by the crew. An aerosol literally being sprayed over all the passengers and surfaces with no objection. No asking what that is. No demands for personal exemption because I am special. No nothing. Period. After a 5 minute wait you get to disembark and face many questions from the nicest, but very detailed, border agent. Then they check your bags for unwanted items like foreign species of plants, animals, insects. They don't take your work for it.
This system was the developed to protect the critical agriculture sector decades ago and is universally respected for it's purpose and effectiveness.
I argue that this National training and awareness enabled the Kiwis to organize against a similar unseen common threat.

Do you mean that the Bahamas is poorly managed? Doesn't have the caliber of leaders, business and political, that Canada, Norway, and Britain do?
Venezuela is where it is because it ousted foreign industry experts and decided to have politicians manage the resource. As production problems began to cripple the industry, it was like musical chairs; less seats every stop while the politicians took care of their own.
Did you know that Iran has never reached the the pre Islamic revolution petroleum production levels? They also ousted the international companies and decided to have politicians manage their resource.
Anything you mismanage is going to fail.

He is very popular among the poorly educated. Does this shoe fit you?

This explains a great deal:

https://medium.com/@tgof137/whats-the-a…