In 2022, a large majority of Cook Islanders voted in favor of legislating medicinal cannabis in a legally non-binding referendum that ran alongside the country’s general election. The Government has since created a committee to explore how medicinal cannabis could be regulated and made available within the country.

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The committee is currently exploring the option of amending legislation to allow for medicinal cannabis to be manufactured within the Cook Islands. The committee's potential reasoning behind this could be greater cost-efficiency in comparison to importation and the creation of more job opportunities for Cook Islanders.

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For this idea to become a reality, the government may need to alter its “dated" and “harsh” laws regarding the possession of cannabis, allowing for manufacturing licenses that permit people to commercially grow cannabis for medicinal purposes.

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