19/04/2025
Great is the PNM—and greater shall the PNM be—when we embrace the tools that can uplift our people, our youth, and our communities!
We stand today at the crossroads of history and opportunity. We have a chance—not just to pass laws, not just to create agencies—but to build legacies. When we speak of the Institute, when we speak of the Cannabis Authority, we are not just talking about regulation—we are talking about liberation.
Liberation for the young Black boy in Laventille. Liberation for the young Black girl in Morvant. Liberation for the next generation of leaders, healers, growers, scientists, and entrepreneurs.
This is not just about cannabis. This is about ownership. This is about creating space—legal, economic, and social—for our youth to step forward and say: “This belongs to me too.”
When the Cannabis Authority is in the hands of the people, when it works for the people, then the young Black child raised in the heart of the PNM has something to look forward to. Something to believe in. Something to build.
Let us not be left behind in a global green economy. Let us not watch others profit from what we have cultivated in struggle and pain. It’s our time now. It’s our turn.
Let us open Cannabis Industries. Let us create jobs, businesses, research labs, wellness centres. Let us turn stigma into success and policy into progress.
Great is the PNM—and greater it shall be—when our youth are not just consumers, but creators. Not just employees, but employers. Not just overlooked, but uplifted.
Let the Institute rise. Let the Cannabis Authority empower. And let the people—especially our young Black men and women—thrive.
Thank you.
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