Cayman Islands: 69-Page Cannabis Reform Paper Out for Public Comment

As of 2 July 2026, the Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission has published its 69-page discussion paper on cannabis reform, more than a year after 55.64% of voters backed decriminalization in the April 2025 referendum. The paper, titled Cannabis Reform Options for a Harm Minimisation Framework, opens a public consultation that closes 1 September and puts every implementation question the referendum left unresolved on the table.

What the Paper Puts on the Table

The Commission examines cannabis regimes in 16 countries and asks Caymanians to weigh in on six specific choices. Whether importation, production, distribution, and sale should remain criminal offences. Whether home cultivation should be decriminalized. Whether criminal penalties for possession and consumption should be replaced with administrative penalties. Whether decriminalization should apply only to dried cannabis. What possession limits should look like. Whether historic minor cannabis convictions should be extinguished, and how minors caught with cannabis should be dealt with.

The paper’s authors recommend caution on the retail side. “The model least likely to increase consumption is decriminalising possession and consumption without optimising the conditions for increased demand,” they write, meaning no retail access, no low prices, no marketing, no wide product variety. In their reading, that model reduces prohibition’s harms without shifting the underlying demand curve.

Submissions can be sent to cilawreform@gov.ky, mailed to P.O. Box 136, Grand Cayman KY1-9000, or delivered in person to the Portfolio of Legal Affairs on Elgin Avenue.

What Cayman Visitors Should Know Now

Nothing has changed at the border. Medical cannabis by prescription (oils, capsules, and vaporized forms) remains the only legal pathway on the islands, as it has since 2017. Recreational possession is still a criminal offence under the Misuse of Drugs Law. The 2025 referendum result was advisory, and no implementation legislation has been enacted.

Cruise passengers docking at Grand Cayman, honeymooners at Seven Mile Beach, and dive travelers headed to Little Cayman or Cayman Brac should assume the pre-referendum rules apply for the rest of 2026. Customs enforcement has not softened while the paper is out for comment, and CBD imports still fall into a grey zone that is safer to avoid.

What to Watch

Public consultation runs to 1 September. The Commission’s final report is expected in Q4 2026 and may include draft legislative amendments. Any bill that follows would still need to pass the Cayman Islands Parliament and receive assent, a two-stage process that (as Bermuda shows) can stall on constitutional grounds even after a democratic mandate. The next date on the calendar that matters for travelers is 1 September, when the submission window closes and the Commission begins drafting toward the final report.