The An­tigua and Bar­bu­da gov­ern­ment says it will ta­ble at the next sit­ting of Par­lia­ment, leg­is­la­tion aimed at ex­pung­ing the crim­i­nal records of in­di­vid­u­als con­vict­ed for pos­ses­sion of small quan­ti­ties of cannabis and grant­i­ng them of­fi­cial par­dons.

A state­ment is­sued fol­low­ing the week­ly Cab­i­net meet­ing said that At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and the Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs, Stead­roy Cut­tie Ben­jamin has been au­tho­rised to draft the leg­is­la­tion that will of­fer a par­don to per­sons con­vict­ed of hav­ing less than 15 grams of mar­i­jua­na.

It said that the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion will al­so ap­ply to in­di­vid­u­als con­vict­ed un­der the Pub­lic Health Amend­ment Act dur­ing the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) pan­dem­ic, with a view to clear­ing their records as well.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the Cab­i­net has agreed that Prime Min­is­ter Gas­ton Browne will ad­vise the Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al, Sir Rod­ney Williams, to ex­er­cise his con­sti­tu­tion­al au­thor­i­ty un­der Sec­tion 84(1) of the Con­sti­tu­tion of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da to par­don in­di­vid­u­als cur­rent­ly serv­ing sen­tences at His Majesty’s Prison, who are ac­tive­ly en­gaged in the HAP­PI Pro­gramme and have demon­strat­ed gen­uine re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion.

“Cab­i­net em­pha­sized that the crim­i­nal records of these in­di­vid­u­als will be ex­punged, al­low­ing them a fresh start and an op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue con­tribut­ing pos­i­tive­ly to so­ci­ety. This ac­tion aligns with the An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Labour Par­ty gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and rein­te­gra­tion,” the state­ment said.

It said up­on re­ceiv­ing their par­dons, these in­di­vid­u­als will be im­me­di­ate­ly of­fered full-time em­ploy­ment with­in the HAP­PI Pro­gramme and that Cab­i­net al­so ap­proved the grant­i­ng of EC$500, 000 to the HAP­PI Pro­gramme for the con­tin­ued build­ing and re­con­struc­tion of homes for the less for­tu­nate.