Prime Minister Mark Brown says he has met with the Customs and Police departments ensuring that they understand what the law is and what their roles are

He made this comment after Opposition MP Vaitoti Tupa of the Democratic Party directed a question in regards to an article published in the Cook Islands News titled “Police and Customs 'need to work together': PM Brown”.

Matavera MP Tupa said he had been told that Police and Customs have their own regulations regarding those who enter the country, especially around the issue of bringing in medicinal cannabis. 

PM Brown replied: “We have met with the two departments in regards to medicinal cannabis. First thing is that there is no allowance in our law to bring it here. We have not changed the law to bring it here. It’s a matter of each department knowing their role.”

Brown said he met with both agencies and the Solicitor General on this matter to make sure each ministry and department is clear on what the law is and their role.

“… we are seeing more people coming through bringing their prescribed medical cannabis into the country, this is a result of our referendum that we held, and an overwhelming majority of people support it … changes to our legislation to allow medicinal cannabis to be used.

“But we are in the process of reviewing the legislation to make these amendments to allow or to see how we can apply the use of medicinal cannabis in our country.”