Minister Musa: “The Church is Our Social Conscience”

As we reported earlier this week, the Belize Council of Churches has taken a stern position on the proposed legalization of marijuana.  It was expected since the religious community has staunchly opposed the decriminalization of a small quantity of cannabis for personal use.  While the church has criticized government for not being consulted on an issue of national importance such as this, Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa acknowledges the role of the church as society’s moral conscience.

Kareem Musa

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“They are our social conscience, they are our moral compass and so they will have an issue with this, but as I keep saying, it is all an issue of perspective and as politicians we have to look at perspectives.  Let us look at the consumer, the consumer sees this as relief.  The small farmer, the investor, the businessman, they see this as a profit.  The government sees this as only practical, given the circumstances that we now face where we have something that is decriminalized but you have no way of obtaining and so the government sees it as only practical, that is the government’s perspective that there is an opportunity for the country to put in place regulations because I think that is where the conversation is heading.  A lot of the conversation is based on, “Oh, this is legalization.”  It is not, it is actually regulation.  It is ensuring that you have to be eighteen years or older to actually get a card to qualify to use cannabis and so these things are not currently in place.”