Good news! however, let us stop fooling ourselves cannabis legalization will be a blessing to our Bahamaland if it's locally grown and harvested by reputable "mom and pop" family Island farmers on Islands like Acklins, Andros, Mayguana and properly administered and taxed by a transparent Government agency, All this 12% tax crap is evil and ungodly! Use some of the tax from cannabis sales to pay down our massive national debt, and use most of it to upgrade our Bahamas educationally, spiritually, economically, medically, mentally, but most importantly invest in the mind, body, and spirit of our people, because many are hurting in silence. Suicide in on the rise in our Bahamas and domestic violence is skyrocketing it will be fair to blame other legal vices in our nation. alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals etc, however, we also have to look at the "wall of silence" in so many homes incest, sexual assault and abuses, many are depressed. cannabis can heal the mind body and spirit, will there be those who abuse it? absolutely! it's illegal and it's being abused now, however, we're all in this together; people abuse food, sex, religion should we make those illegal too? this is why we must use a portion of taxes from cannabis sales to take care of our people mind, body and spirit but most of all higher education (pun intended) University of The Bahamas should get a substantial portion of the tax dollars created from cannabis sales to encourage not only medical research in the bahamas but to improve the lives of our citizens.

Here is a good solution to this problem, if taxes are raised on the "Number Boys" then all they have to do to maintain the level of staff they have and so love is get into the washhouse business to make up for lost revenue.

The PLP being in attendance is just politics. Everyone knows unless they have terminal stage 4 amnesia that it was recently the PLP or the Christie administration who had been recklessly borrowing and borrowing for the past few years millions and millions of dollars from institutions that hate us (brown, black people/nations) and is trying to trap us in debt, this is Globalism's, Jim Crow, ask Jamaica.

***"So please, as you contemplate downsizing, remember that you’ve enjoyed many years of feast and if you must suffer from one year of famine in order for us to get to that sweet spot of the perfect level of taxation, we will remember any good deeds that you do.”***

Sounds reasonable, however, it also sounds like an episode of "Don't throw stones if you live in a glass house". #Superwash

If you owned a business selling Kalik, that is being threatened by high taxes, which directly threatens the future employment of your employees, would you not do the same thing? I would.

I agree my brother/sister opression is oppression. see my response below.

Cont'd. Look at the pills commercials on television, ever listen to the legally stated side effects? some include death, suicidal thoughts and people still take them!!! Die and their family still try to sue! Why? because they are legal? NO! people are too comfortable and entitled and like to blame others rather than taking personal responsibility for their own actions! We’ve become too comfortable and always looking for that quick fix, I will admit our anemic decades-old educational system heavily contributes to mass poverty in our nation. We live in an information age, get off the computer scrolling on Facebook minding other people’s business and take care of your own, educate yourselves! YouTube is FREE! Some have been going to church since they were born 7 days a week plus twice on Sundays and still gambling! What if it was mandated to go to school 7 days a week plus twice on Sundays? That government would be voted out! all of them! This is the Government's fault for making gambling for an unfamiliar mass legal in the first place, most of the current/former Government officials are BOTH profiting FROM the ‘demise’ of the social fabric of our Bahama land; they profit from liquor, gambling, pharmaceuticals, predatory banking, some (most are/was a lawyer) even directly profit from illegal drugs and CRIME!. This is why crime won’t get any better, yall better wake up! What needs to happen is the Government now should become the number boys competition, create a better product for the marketplace and watch them (the number boys) shut their doors one by one, but there is an obvious conflict of interest, and this may never happen. Keep hoping and praying, ever heard of the NRA? Marjory Stoneman? Columbine? Etc, I rest my case. I love and wish all my Brothers and Sister PEACE.

IMHO, here is my observational unbridled truth: The number boys, the liquor industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the banking industry, Lawyers in politics etc. they're all taking advantage of peoples’ ignorance and desperation, (Google free market capitalism) but they are all made legal and regulated by the elected Government OF the people, BY the people of the commonwealth of the bahamas. (Google capitalism definition/history) I sympathize with those being taken advantage of, however, these businesses are not mandated by our Government to be used on a daily or hourly basis, these businesses offer a legal product to the marketplace, we have free will to either walk into that establishment and be a patron or keep moving along. The Bahamas is not a daycare, we are part of a globalized economy and we’re small potatoes. We must teach our people that the choices we make on a daily basis determine our success or our failure. If a homophobic adult pastor walks into a gay bar have a few drinks, got drunk start ‘making out’ with the patrons and someone decides to snap some pictures of it upload it to social media all the 'fun' they're having, then come Sunday morning their church is empty and now he/she can’t pay their bills whose fault is it? the bar? the patrons? the fun? the persons who snapped the pictures and upload it, oh, it’s the devil’s liquor? Noooo! It’s the pastor's deliberate actions. Coincidentally many people who gamble are against gambling theoretically, but gamble anyway, it’s the hypocrisy and the 'gall' they have of not taking personal responsibility for their actions. But if they win??? thank you, jesus! if they lost, this is the devil close it down! (((it's called gambling for a reason))) Gambling has been going on in the Bahamas for decades, we live right next to florida! Ever heard of the Florida Lotto? Gambling in The Bahamas should have NEVER been legalized for private individuals, but instead, it should have been a national lotto that directly uplifts and give back to the same community it profits from, but the backward, regressive, uneducated, predatory religious gangsters counsel would ‘pelt dem with fire and brimstone’, but don't blame the capitalist for taking advantage of a money-making void in the marketplace (AKA your hard earn money), that's the job of a capitalist no matter their race, creed or nationality.

Firstly: you are incorrect, I would feel the same, maybe because of our demographics and the way it (legal gambling in Our Bahamas) was implemented, even worse, I've lived many years in a predominantly white country, I do not naively gravitate towards 'whiteness' I love and promote blackness and black empowerment of all age, color hue & genders. Secondly: It's call capitalism, and it's legal, just like the liquor industry wrecking havoc on black, poor and indigenous people since moonshine was illegal now it's legal. Thirdly: Gambling all day and night is an ignorant irresponsible choice, not a requirement to live, on the other hand, eating lots of leafy greens and avoiding commercial meat and drinking lots of (water) is a requirement to live a more healthy life for a long time. I think you need to read my post again, especially the first five sentences and the part about importing crap from the USA and other foreign countries. Gambling is not a requirement to live! Stop giving them your hard earned money and the number boys will go out of business. No demand, no supply, however I understand the psychologic effect of trying to win money, but fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. We should have a national lottery IMHO, with proceeds going towards better education on all levels in the bahamas, the liquor industry should be heavily taxed just like the number boys and revenue go towards our healthcare and hospitals and furthering science and research in the bahamas, rather than drinking your liver away and paying thousands of bahamian dollars to hospitals in Miami to get well. This is not a 'clap back'. I wish you peace.

***“They don’t want a web shop in Acklins. They’re not interested. It’s devastating communities.”***

- question: How about the devastation brought on by alcohol, cigarettes, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sodas and sugary drinks, the pharmaceutical pill popping industry, the list goes on and on, black people need to stop hating on other black people success! Massa will not move you out of the fields and into the house for a crab mentality, now, I's free now! Get over it, it's call capitalism, we all have to swim through this sea of crap together, just like the same tons of foreign crap we import from the USA and around the world on a daily basis that literally legally kill ourselves and others (see some above). Don't blame the 'Number Bosses' blame the Government who legalized it!! It's not personal, it business brother, use that energy in a positive manner for YOU to create something that directly competes against the number houses, and if you have created something, teach others how to make money. It's exasperating to hear people (Haters) using the Government to get rid of other people's success, business is simply supply and demand, where there is no demand, how can a business survive? Many 'snake-oil sellers' have been getting rich peddling the doctrine of slavery from before independence they have is so good, our privy counsel people dem (former colonizers) had it enshrined in our constitution and the nation is worse off spiritually than on July 10th,1973! Stop trying to fool and control our people with poverty ideologies just to buy that pined striped suit, at the least if they buy a number ticket, they know if they win or lose; with some popular legalize rackets they have to die first to know if they win or lost, after that first lost if they're ignorant to stop by the number man and buy another ticket before nigh service, that's on them! these are not kids, these are grown a$$ adults. It's all personal responsibility, even the 'good book' pride itself on our creator giving us mortal humans, made in HIS (definitely not a her) likeness a choice. It's DINO'S mentality like this what keeps our nation stagnant in this globalized economy; corned beef?? yall better learn French and start filling out them applications for these housekeeping positions.