After two years of planning, the medicinal cannabis industry has officially achieved lift-off.
The Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority (BMCLA) is reporting that it has received its first 15 applications just this week.
The disclosure was made yesterday by chief executive officer of the BMCLA, Dr Shantal Munro-Knight, during a virtual press conference via Zoom. She noted that the number would likely have been much higher, had it not been for setbacks resulting from the second wave of COVID-19. She also revealed while there had been overseas interest, the very first application for cultivation was from a Barbadian.
The first of the applications has come just a year after the organisation was established under Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Industry Act, 2019.
“Starting from Monday when we opened for applications up to this morning, we have approximately 15 applications in draft and one application fully submitted. We are very happy that the very first application fully submitted is for a Tier 1 cultivation licence (up to an acre) and also an import licence, and that person is local. What for us is really good is that it pushes back on the notion that small players will not be able to get into the industry because of the number of challenges,” said Munro-Knight.
The BMCLA head said the start of application process augured well for the trajectory of the sector, as already six of the eight categories of licences had received applications. (CLM)
