Cayman’s long-awaited vote on decriminalising small amounts of ganja and establishing a national lottery will not take place under the PACT administration’s term and could instead be added to the 2025 general elections ballot.
Tourism and Ports Minister Kenneth Bryan, speaking on the Cayman Compass talkshow ‘The Resh Hour’ on Wednesday, said, based on his last discussion with Premier Wayne Panton, he supported having the referendum at the same time as elections.
However, Bryan seemed to indicate that this proposal was not set in stone.
“I hope that the referendum is there, but I respect the leader, our honourable premier. It is [up to] him to make that call. I just hope that we follow through with it,” Bryan said.
Last December, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to hold the referendum, which was based on a motion from Panton.
However, since then, there has been no clear direction from the government on what the questions would be or when the legal framework to hold the vote would be taken to Parliament.
Bryan, who had been campaigning to have the referendum and even posted billboards on the issue, said, after speaking with Panton, having a vote at this point would be an added expense.
“It’s pointless to try to have a referendum in six months when you have an election in 20 months because it’s very costly… If you did [it] earlier on than it would have been justified because it’s a safer distance between the two,” Bryan said.
The issue of the vote comes as Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nick Gent published guidelines on the sale of cannabinol and cannabinol derivative products on Thursday, 31 Aug., following reports that a teenager consumed an edible purchased through a food-delivery app.
People’s input needed
Bryan said the premier supports holding the referendum at elections, as had been done previously, and “I would encourage that because I do think these two matters are unresolved”.
With the vote being added to the polls, he said, there are options for expanding the issues covered by the referendum.
He said if the community wanted to reopen the discussion on cruise piers then that too could be a topic put to the people.
Bryan suggested people can “reach out to the premier… and maybe finalise this topic about cruise piers on a referendum, [asking] does the country need it?”
In 2019, Cayman was headed to its first people-initiated referendum on building cruise piers, but the then Progressives-led administration pulled the plug on the cruise port project.
Following that, Premier Sir Alden McLaughlin opted out of the referendum.
The people should have gotten their chance to have their say on piers at that time, Bryan said, adding that he believed the will of the people should be heard through a referendum.
“I think it would have been a good thing if they did have the referendum because you could have explicit information to say yes or no, but most people have accepted that we don’t want a cruise pier,” Bryan said.
He added he wished there were more surveys and referendums “because you can’t go wrong if the people tell you what they want”.
“Your job is to advise [the people] that ‘if you do this, this will happen. Do you still want to do it?’ Now people have this view that all leaders should just tell them what to do and they know what’s better for them. I don’t believe in that type of politics or that type of representation,” he said.
The minister pointed to previous elections as an example of what happens when the will of the people is not heard.
“If you can’t persuade [the people] that your idea is good for them and they’re still saying no, then respect their decision,” he said.
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