Cayman News: UPM divided over additional referendum question

(CNS): Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan remains supportive of adding more issues to the referendum on cruise ship berthing facilities that the UPM government says it will hold before the end of the year. Speaking on Cayman Radio, Bryan, who acknowledged he is known in some circles as the “referendum man,” said he would like to add questions on gambling and marijuana legalization to the ballot, but the UPM caucus does not support expanding the ballot.

UPM has proposed holding a referendum in October or November on whether the Cayman Islands should develop a cruise ship berthing terminal. Bryan said he still wants to include other issues, but he has not been able to convince all his colleagues. He blamed former premier Wayne Panton for not holding a referendum on the Cayman Islands national lottery or numbers game issue or a vote on legalizing marijuana.

In response to a question from Elvis McKeever, who is running for the Cayman Brac East seat against Juliana O’Connor-Connolly on a cannabis legalization platform in 2021, Bryan said it was Panton who failed to call a referendum on cannabis legalization and the lottery before he was ousted. However, the minister did not explain why UPM had also failed to do so nine and a half months after the coup that ousted him.

McIver noted that Bryan and his colleagues “abandoned him” so he could not follow through. He said O’Connor-Connolly, now premier, had promised the people of eastern Cayman Brac a vote on legalizing marijuana but in the final weeks of the campaign she stole his main platform.

McIver ultimately lost by 107 votes to 266, but ahead of O’Connor-Connolly Changed her mind about marijuanait looks like the competition will be more intense.

Bryan said he had been calling for a vote because he believed the public should be involved in making important decisions, but it would not happen unless the caucus reached a majority. He said most government MPs only agreed on the cruise ship issue.

“I still think the state needs to call for legalization of marijuana, not decriminalization. I want to make sure that’s clear because there are people who want marijuana to be legalized. I don’t agree with that. I agree that marijuana should be legalized because it shouldn’t be something that ruins the lives of young or old people,” he said.

The minister also said he wanted to see a national lottery system that no longer criminalised casual lottery buyers, which, while widely accepted, was a barrier for people. But his colleagues disagreed.

“Unless the majority in government agrees, it cannot be achieved. My position has not changed now. I have not received enough support from my colleagues so it is not on the referendum list,” he said, refusing to say who supported or did not support it.

Mr McIver said the government needed to hold a vote given support for legalising marijuana across the Cayman Islands. Without the vote, these councillors would not be re-elected because they had failed to deliver on their promises and people would not believe them next time.

Bryan said McIver, a well-known local supporter of marijuana legalization, was free to make his request, but he noted that McIver’s position has been consistent and he understands his frustration.

The minister said he believed people fully understood the difference between decriminalization and legalization, which is very different: under decriminalization, people found in possession of cannabis may be fined but will not have a criminal record, but people will not be allowed to sell, grow or even possess small amounts of the drug. Current Cayman Islands law criminalizes the possession and consumption of cannabis unless there is a prescription from a medical professional.

All cannabis-related referendums held under the UPM will aim to erase existing criminal records and ensure no one goes to jail for smoking and possessing cannabis. However, they will still face fines and people can still go to jail for growing their own cannabis.