Bermuda: New Security Minister Silent on Cannabis in Maiden Speech

As of July 2026, Bermuda’s new Minister of National Security, Senator Ryan Robinson Perinchief, has not repeated the cannabis-reform commitment he gave on his first day in office. His maiden speech to the Senate on 15 July focused on nation-building, youth leadership, and institutional stability. Cannabis was not in it.

Perinchief was sworn in on 3 July after a cabinet reshuffle that moved former minister Michael Weeks off the drug-control brief. In an interview with the Royal Gazette the following day, he named cannabis reform an immediate priority, saying, “Cannabis has been a sticking point for the Government and this country for quite some time.” His Durham University dissertation examined cannabis policy. He declined then to offer specifics, pending a full briefing.

Twelve days later, the maiden speech landed without a cannabis reference. Free Democratic Movement chair Omar Dill responded in a 15 July Royal Gazette opinion column, urging the Minister to “back your words with action” and pushing for an end to criminal penalties for private adult use rather than a purely commercial licensing model. Dill’s column cited Perinchief’s own academic work, which argues that decriminalisation alone “may still be insufficient” and describes 90 percent of possession charges falling on Black Bermudians, who make up 54 percent of the population.

For now, the law on the island is unchanged. The Misuse of Drugs (Decriminalisation of Cannabis) Amendment Act 2017 makes possession of 7 grams or less non-criminal but leaves consumption, cultivation, retail, and import as offences. The prescription-based medical framework that Weeks outlined to the House of Assembly on 15 May remains under development, with no tabled bill and no implementation date.

What This Means

For travelers and cruise passengers docking at King’s Wharf and Hamilton, the practical rules have not moved. There is still no dispensary, no legal purchase, and no legal consumption. The 7-gram decriminalisation is a shield against criminal charges, not a green light. Police retain the right to seize, and cruise-line carriage rules override any Bermudian threshold.

The wider story is the pace of change. A new Minister with a cannabis-policy doctorate publicly citing reform as a priority is a shift in tone from the Weeks era, which stayed narrowly within the medical-framework lane. Whether that tone becomes tabled legislation, and whether it goes beyond medical to touch adult private use, is the question the opposition is now pressing in print.

What to Watch

The next windows are Cabinet sign-off on the pending medical-framework instrument, any statement from the Ministry of National Security on scope, and Perinchief’s next Senate contribution. The medical bill has been drafted with the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in mind, which the UK governor cited when refusing assent to Bermuda’s 2022 adult-use bill. Any broader reform would face the same treaty-and-governor test.