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Depenalization Legislation Going To House
posted (August 16, 2017)

As we told you last night, the government is tabling an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act at Friday’s House meeting. This has to do with the decriminalization of small amounts of weed â€" and depending on the outcome of Friday’s meeting it can mean that those who are caught with a joint won’t have to worry about any criminal charges. Today Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington put it into perspective. 

Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Foreign Minister
"My own understanding of it that what they are seeking to do really is to enable people who smoke small quantity of marijuana to be able to do so without running the risk of going to prison. So if you smoke small amount of marijuana in your home, you're not likely to be charged for that. If you do the same thing outside they will give you a summons and there will be a fine. That is the extent of that piece of legislation, it's nothing more than that really to facilitate those people and there are some people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes and if they have it in their home and they catch them they can find themselves in serious problem so I think it's an attempt to reach kind of compromise but it's very minimal the initiative is very minimal really, really no big thing."

We will have coverage of the bill at Friday’s meeting.

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