Considering the poor white trash that comes here, I would be surprised if they had anything but moths in them.

I laugh at the very idea of the poor American tourist studying his map, desperately looking for "south of Shirley Street", in order not to go there. 99% of them are so obese they can hardly make it to the cruise terminal gates, let alone the end of Bay Street.

Therefore, they are in no danger whatsoever.

Value Added Tax is just the fancy name given to a "I need your money and I need it now" tax.

Is there any value added to a second hand car resale? Obviously not, yet they charge it.

Is there any value added to a transfer from one bank account to another? Obviously not, yet they charge it.

One could go on and on. But there is no point. The point is that this nation is bankrupt and in debt up to its gills. So forget about looking for fairness or logic in the tax system. They need to rob you to prevent all four wheels from coming off. You will get "your" $30m when hell freezes over. Or slightly later.

Make it legal to grow.
Make it compulsory to sell all production to 1 licenced company, which will be a PPP.
Licence that company to produce derivatives.
Licence that company to sell derivative products to tourists in shops.
Give every Bahamian a free shareholding in that company once up and running, however minimal, but without right to vote. With right to dividends. Some sort of preferreds.

I would be shocked if that company did not have a turnover of at least $200m with annual profits of $100m.

Cannabis is a weed. It will grow anywhere. They grow it even in Russia.

Compete with whom??

There is no international market in weed. It is illegal.

If you organize things like a third world country, you are right.

If you use your head, you do this: government guarantees price (which has to be good) and buys up all production. It gives up front grants to farmers and is paid back with final product. Then it processes it in a joint venture with the private sector into the various end products (food, medical, etc...) and resells it in licenced shops. Employs hundred of Bahamians, fills up its coffers, gives shares to all. Everyone wins. But you are right. Odds of our government being able to do something even this simple are smaller than a cold day in hell.

I always ask myself why we bother to tell ourselves lies, when we know the real truth. The real truth is that we did not "win" independence or majority rule. The truth is that the Brits could not wait to rid themselves of what they considered a bunch of worthless islands with no resources and no prospects. Anyone who reads the transcripts of the 1972 Marlborough House Conference cannot fail to come to that conclusion. They said it in so many words: "we are off, you do what you like."

Yea, it's much better to criminalize it and have young people unemployed rather than get them to grow it commercially and sell it to the millions of tourists coming off the cruise ships and get wealthy.

Because none of them would like to buy a few Rum Cakes laced with marijuana.

We have a captive market that would swallow as much as we can produce and we do...nothing.

Our collective enterprise spirit is sub zero.

It's not the vehicles we should be worried about.

It's the monkeys driving them.

You say that if the money has no backing it aint money. What do you think backs the B$, or the US$ for that matter? Absolutely nothing.
Money used to be convertible, into gold. That is why it was a Pound: you could convert it into a weight of gold. You could go to the Bank of England, hand over your 1 Pound note and get gold. Stopped a loooong time ago. Since then, nothing backs your paper money, that is why it is called fiat money.
Now, imagine if you could have an unhackable wallet, so no one can steal your money. Imagine if no government could confiscate your money. Imagine if there were no banks. Imagine if no government could devalue your savings. Imagine if you could transfer money to anyone on the planet instantly and for free.
Those are aspirations, not fads. Cryptocurrencies bring us a step closer. Within 20 years there will be no Bank of the Bahamas, no currency controls, no theft, no RBC charging you to cash cheques. Freedom.