The Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority is hoping to see some cannabis-based businesses established this year.
The authority’s communications and public education specialist Tracy Moore said they had ten licensees and things were looking promising. She was speaking to the DAILY NATION recently during their fourth anniversary Open Day at its Wildey Mall, St Michael office.
“We have ten licensees, which are individual businesses, as well as 33 licenses at the University of the West Indies. People are now building out their businesses; there’s a misconception where people think that once you get your licenses, you can start, but the licenses say you can now start building out. So people are building out, and we’re hoping during 2025 that we see some businesses pop up,” she said.
During a debate in the House of Assembly last Friday on a resolution to vest 18 acres of land at Searles, Christ Church, Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne criticised the Barbados Labour Party administration’s management of the medicinal marijuana initiative, which he described as a waste of resources.
“Millions of dollars have been spent on this project and what do we have to show for it? Not a single blade of marijuana grown. Meanwhile, lands originally designated for marijuana cultivation remain idle,” he said.
Moore said that despite the four years they have been in operation and the myriad pieces of information available, there were still too many people who did not know what they were about.
“This annual open house we’ve been doing since we opened. This is our fourth one, and it really basically is to educate people. Even though we have information, brochures, booklets, magazines, we still hear people go, ‘What’s this marijuana thing?’ but we have been having these discussions.
“And so today is the day to educate people face-to-face about what the industry is about, what are some of the things that we can do to help them as we grow together, the things that they need to get involved, the application process, all those things, today people come in to get questions answered, even if it’s just a general interest,” she said.
The open day included music by DJ Salt and financial sessions with digital wallet app mMoney and Barbados Trust Loans. Moore said it was important to have a financial plan if planning to start any business so the same was true for cannabis-based endeavours.
“Barbados Trust Loans is here to talk about helping to finance those persons who are interested. We have a 60-40 plan that if you were to get a licence that is for, let’s say $29 000, cultivator tier one, you get 60 per cent up front.
“We wanted to make sure that we’re able to talk to people about financial responsibility and help them, because people are scared dealing with cash all the time. mMoney does not close the gap in the banking situation, but it does help if I’m setting up a business, don’t want to store cash and don’t want to use a bank,” she said. (CA)
