The social media rumor mill was ablaze yet again yesterday, this time with a false message circulated claiming that Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis and his team had reached an agreement to decriminalize a certain quantity of marijuana.

The Bahama Journal spoke with Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands yesterday who immediately shut down those rumors, making it quite clear that the message was false and quite frankly it did not make sense.

“There are many inconsistencies in the note,” he said.

“The first being that the decision was made on Tuesday night in the House of Assembly, it makes no sense seeing that the house doesn’t meet on Tuesdays.”

Furthermore, he said House meetings are public and a decision like that would have to go through an official bill passing process.

“It also said something about a 15 person vote,” he said.

“This does not make sense, given the number of Members of Parliament that sit in the House. It did not happen.”

The note went viral on the Whatsapp social media platform.

It further read that the move was a good one or the Minnis administration.

“The decriminalization of marijuana (weed) just means that possession of the drug no longer leads to jail time,” it said.

“Without full legalization weed, is still and illicit substance, but you can buy grow and sell it. Its’ a big win for the FNM administration and a small big step towards legalization but as for now the administrations no longer wants to see Bahamians arrested for the drug.”

The note also pointed out that the decision came on the heels of the new appointment of Anthony Ferguson as the Commissioner of Police, making it seem as is Mr. Ferguson may have had some input.