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BRITISH CROWN BLOCKS BERMUDA’S CANNABIS BILL, STRAINING TIES

By Amanda Coletta
October 15, 2022 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

Banners on street poles in Hamilton pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in
Hamilton, Bermuda, on Sept. 19. (Amanda Coletta/The Washington Post)

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HAMILTON, Bermuda — The idea was to bring Bermuda’s drug laws into the 21st
century.

The cannabis laws in Britain’s oldest overseas territory harmed Black islanders
disproportionately, Attorney General Kathy Lynn Simmons said, and represented
the “stain of colonialism.”


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So the government in this Atlantic archipelago of 64,000 people approved
legislation to liberalize the code. All that remained to enact it was the assent
of the governor, the British monarch’s representative in the territory — usually
a formality.



But some 3,300 miles away, in Mother Britain, there was a problem. The foreign
secretary had concluded that the bill would put Britain in violation of
international drug control treaties that prohibit signatories from permitting
the recreational use of cannabis.

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And so Rena Lalgie, the crown-appointed governor of Bermuda, said last month she
had “received an instruction” issued on “Her Majesty’s behalf, not to assent to
the bill as drafted.”

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The denial came despite warnings by Bermudian Premier E. David Burt that it
would “destroy” the territory’s relationship with Britain. It has sparked
worries about a constitutional crisis and charges of undue interference by
London in a territory where talk of independence has long ebbed and flowed.

Simmons said the decision was “disappointing, but not surprising, given the
confines of our constitutional relationship with the U.K. government and their
archaic interpretation of the narcotic conventions.”

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If not surprising, it was unusual.

In Britain’s oldest overseas territory, a farewell toast to Her Majesty

Peter Clegg, a professor of politics and international relations at the
University of the West of England, Bristol, said he couldn’t remember another
instance in which a territorial governor has withheld assent from a bill
approved by the local government.

It’s a “very controversial” step, he said, “because it goes to the heart of a
territory’s autonomy and democracy.”

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Lynne Winfield, the secretary of Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda, has a
name for it.

“I think … it’s a form of new colonialism,” she said.

Momentum to legalize cannabis is picking up speed around the world. Recreational
use of the drug, with some restrictions, is legal in countries such as Canada,
Mexico and South Africa. Germany’s coalition government plans to join that list.

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In the United States, federal law prohibits the possession or use of cannabis.
But more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have legalized its
recreational use. And President Biden this month announced plans to pardon
anyone convicted of a federal offenses for simple possession of the drug, and
urged governors to do the same at the state level.

Ex-BVI premier fights drug charges as Britain considers taking over

Bermuda decriminalized the personal possession of up to seven grams of cannabis
in 2017, but stopped short of legalizing the drug. Burt’s Progressive Labour
Party won reelection in a landslide in 2020 on a platform that included a pledge
to liberalize cannabis laws still further.

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Under the bill approved by the territorial legislature, a “cannabis licensing
authority” would grant licenses to grow and sell the drug for personal and
commercial purposes and regulate the new industry. It set the minimum age to
apply for a license at 21, and would allow for cannabis to be consumed in public
only at cannabis retail shops or specific cannabis events.

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Burt’s government sought initially to introduce legislation that was narrower
and focused on legalizing medicinal cannabis, but it changed course after it
heard from members of the public that its proposal didn’t go far enough. Backers
of legalization here say that’s still the case.

The government says its cannabis regime could help fuel the post-pandemic
economic recovery while addressing systemic racism in the territory amid a
broader hemispheric reckoning over the sins and legacies of colonialism.

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It intended to issue the first licenses to people who have been negatively
impacted by prohibition, including those with convictions for simple possession.

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When Simmons introduced the bill, she said laws barring cannabis use had been
used by the territory’s colonial government and the police during civil
uprisings in the 1960s and 1970s to “quell that disquiet and to systematically
criminalize Blacks on the front lines of the racial progress movement.”

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“If Black lives truly do matter,” she said, “you should not hasten to recognize,
deconstruct and reform laws, institutions and systems that are racialized and
harmful to Blacks. … The unjust colonial legacy of our local laws has not been
fully dismantled.”

Racial reckoning in the Caribbean: Former colony confronts the Netherlands over
coronavirus aid conditions

Bermuda’s 36-member House of Assembly passed the bill in 2021, but the Senate
rejected it. Under the territory’s constitution, the lower house can pass a new
bill identical to the old one a second time and present it to the governor for
assent, even if the Senate blocks it a second time.

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Lalgie reserved assent in May, and refused it last month. She said she was open
to working with Bermuda “on reforms within the scope of our existing
international obligations.” Tanya Davis, a spokeswoman for the governor, told
The Washington Post that “the offer of discussions remains open.”

Bermuda, a 21-square-mile archipelago with pink sand beaches, is the oldest of
Britain’s 14 overseas territories. It has its own constitution and parliament.
Britain is responsible for its defense, foreign policy and security.

A playground for the wealthy and home to the descendants of enslaved people
brought here centuries ago by British colonists, Bermuda is the most recent
overseas territory to hold a referendum on independence. About 73 percent of
voters in 1995 opted to remain a territory.

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Many other jurisdictions that have liberalized their cannabis laws — including
Canada, a commonwealth realm in which, like Bermuda, King Charles III is head of
state — are in contravention of the U.N. treaties that Britain is worried about,
said Damon Barrett, a lecturer at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

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The treaties bar states from cultivating and exporting cannabis outside of
medical or scientific purposes. But enforcing those treaties requires diplomatic
will from member states, Barrett said, and there’s not “a lot of desire to
expend political capital on that.”

Britain, the overseas territories and the crown dependencies make up one
undivided realm. It is separate from the other Commonwealth realms — countries
such as Jamaica, Australia and Canada — where the British monarch is also head
of state.

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Unlike the realms, the overseas territories don’t have separate representation
at the international level. When Britain ratifies a treaty, it usually does so
on behalf of its overseas territories and crown dependencies. It can also extend
treaties to them.

Britain has a constitutional responsibility for the laws passed in overseas
territories and crown dependencies, which can include ensuring they’re
consistent with its international obligations.

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When Simmons introduced the bill, she acknowledged that its provisions would go
beyond what the treaties allow. But it would be “disingenuous,” she said, for
international bodies to impose sanctions on Bermuda for easing its cannabis
prohibitions when they have rebuked but not punished countries such as Canada.

“Even though we are officially represented by the U.K. government at the
international level,” she said, “Bermuda’s own voice on issues which affect all
political, economic or financial interests must be represented.”

One Bermuda Alliance, Bermuda’s main opposition party, did not support the bill.
It has charged that the government knew the governor would refuse assent but
pushed forward to force a clash with London with the goal of ginning up support
for independence.

Political strategist Corey Butterfield said the government could work around the
issue by reclassifying how cannabis is scheduled under its drug laws. That would
not require parliament’s approval.

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“So the real question is why not do that?” he asked. “Why set up the fight in
the first place in parliament?”

Tina Evans, a spokeswoman for Bermuda’s government, declined to respond to
questions sent by The Post. She said the “matter continues to evolve” but did
not elaborate.

As Elizabeth gives way to Charles, realms consider severing ties

Relations between Britain and its overseas territories can be thorny.

A British government proposal this year to impose direct rule from London on the
British Virgin Islands after a public inquiry detailed systemic corruption in
the territory drew recriminations across the Caribbean and accusations of
overreach. Britain eventually backed down.

Clegg said disagreements between Britain and its territories have stemmed mostly
from London seeking to impose changes, such as recognizing same-sex marriage or
abolishing the death penalty, on its overseas possessions.

Bermuda’s governor in 2018 granted assent to a bill that reversed the right of
same-sex couples to marry. The British government said it disapproved of the
law, which was condemned by LGBTQ advocates and human rights groups, but
couldn’t step in.

In 2019, a parliamentary committee in Britain said the government must be
prepared to “intervene” in territories where same-sex marriage was restricted,
as it did in 2001 when it decriminalized homosexuality in the territories. So
far, Britain hasn’t gone down that road.

On cannabis, the question now is what comes next.

“Constitutionally, the U.K. does have the authority not to give assent,” Clegg
said. “But what happens if Bermuda makes the change anyway? That could be
unchartered waters, but might be a way of testing the U.K.'s resolve.”

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