UPM divided over additional referendum questions

(CNS): Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan still supports adding more topics to the referendum that the UPM government has said it is going to hold before the end of the year on the question of cruise berthing facilities. Speaking on Radio Cayman, Bryan, who acknowledged that he is known in some circles as “Referendum Man”, said he would like to add questions about legalising gambling and ganja to the ballot but the UPM caucus does not support expanding the vote.

The UPM has proposed holding a referendum in October or November on whether or not Cayman should develop a cruise berthing pier. Bryan said he still wanted to include the other questions but he had not been able to sway all his colleagues. He blamed former premier Wayne Panton for not setting a referendum on the issue of a national lottery or numbers game for Cayman or a vote on decriminalising ganja.

Answering questions from Elvis McKeever, who ran for the Cayman Brac East seat in 2021, running against Juliana O’Connor-Connolly on a platform of legalising cannabis, Bryan said it was Panton who had failed to bring a referendum on that and the lottery issue before he was ousted from office. However, the minister did not explain why the UPM had also failed to do so in the nine and a half months since the coup to remove him.

McKeever pointed out that Bryan and his colleagues “had thrown the man away”, so he couldn’t follow through. He said O’Connor-Connolly was premier now and she had promised the people of Cayman Brac East a vote on decriminalising ganja when she had stolen his main platform agenda in the last weeks of the campaign.

McKeever eventually lost 107 to 266 votes, but before O’Connor-Connolly changed her position on ganja, it had looked as though it would be a much tighter race.

Bryan said that he had continued to agitate for the vote because he believes people should be involved in making important decisions, but until there was a majority in the caucus, it was not going to happen. He said the majority of government MPs had agreed only to the cruise question.

“I still think the country needs to make the call on the decriminalisation of marijuana — not legalisation. Let me make sure that is clear because some people want it to be legalised. I do not agree with that. I agree that it should be decriminalised as it should not be something that ruins young people’s lives or old people’s lives,” he said.

The minister also said he wanted to see a national lottery to stop criminalising people for buying a number if they want to, which was a hindrance to people even though it is commonly accepted. But his colleagues do not agree.

“Until you have a majority of people in government agreeing to it, it can’t come. My position hasn’t changed now. I haven’t gotten enough support from my colleagues to do that so it is not on the referendum ticket,” he said refusing to name who was or was not supporting it.

McKeever said that, given the support across the Cayman Islands for legalisation, the government needs to do that vote. If it doesn’t, those MPs will not get re-elected because they have failed to fulfil the promise and people won’t believe them the next time.

Bryan said that McKeever, a well-known local proponent of legalizing weed, was free to make his demands. However, he noted that McKeever had been consistent with his position and he understood his frustration.

The minister said that he believed people fully understand the difference between decriminalisation and legalisation, which is very different: with decriminalisation, people who are found in possession can be fined but do not get a criminal record, but would not allow people to sell, grow or even possess small amounts. The present law in Cayman criminalises possession and consumption unless it has been prescribed by a medical professional.

Any referendum that takes place under the UPM relating to ganja will be about wiping out existing criminal records and ensuring no one goes to prison for consumption and possession. However, they will still incur fines and people could still go to jail for growing their own plants.