Cayman Islands: Cannabis Consultation Drew 33 Submissions

On 9 September 2026, the Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission said it had logged 33 written responses to its cannabis reform consultation, and it declined to say when it will report. For anyone planning a Grand Cayman stop this winter, the practical reading is that nothing moves before then.

What the Commission said

The consultation ran two months, opening in July and closing on 1 September. Commission staff are “collating and reviewing” the submissions, per the Cayman Compass, and the Commission said it was too early to comment on how many responses supported the proposals, how many opposed them, or how long its final report would take. That report goes to Attorney General Samuel Bulgin, and a bill can only be drafted after he has it.

Thirty-three submissions is the entire public record of a process that started with a national vote.

How that compares with the vote

The consultation exists because 55.64 percent of participating voters backed decriminalizing consumption and possession of small amounts in the 2025 referendum, a result that was advisory and bound nobody. The Commission answered it with a 69-page discussion paper published in July 2026, whose preferred option decriminalizes possession and consumption while leaving import, cultivation, and retail sale prohibited.

The thin response was visible early. In July the Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners’ Association asked residents and businesses to file before the window shut, its president, barrister Richard Barton, telling the Compass that submissions were sparse at that point. Two of the 33 are now public: consultant psychiatrist Dr Marc Lockhart and attorney Orrie Merren filed a 13-page paper arguing for home cultivation alongside decriminalized possession, and for expunging minor cannabis convictions.

What This Means

Nothing about a Cayman trip changes. Recreational possession remains an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Law, medical cannabis is prescription-only, and bringing any cannabis product into the territory is prohibited, prescribed medical products included. If you are docking at George Town, plan on those rules rather than on the ones the referendum pointed toward.

What did change is the timeline. Cayman coverage through the summer, including ours, carried a final report expected in the last quarter of 2026. The Commission now puts no date on it at all. Report, then bill, then implementation: April 2027 and the referendum’s second anniversary is a more realistic marker than this December.

What to watch

Watch whether the Commission publishes any breakdown of the 33 responses, because that is the only way the public will see whether the submissions pulled toward the paper’s cautious option or past it. Watch too for the report reaching Bulgin. Until it does, every Cayman headline about decriminalization is describing a vote rather than a law.