‘Govt rushing medicinal cannabis law’

The Barbados Pharmaceutical Society (BPS) has become the latest organisation to describe as rushed the legislation to establish a medical cannabis industry.

BPS president Marina Gooding told a Joint Select Committee of Parliament on the Medical Cannabis Industry Bill that medicinal marijuana appears to have been singled out for special treatment.

She argued that while she has no problem with legislation governing the growing and production of medicinal cannabis to be regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, its usage should be placed under the existing pharmaceutical drug guidelines under the Ministry of Health.

Gooding told lawmakers: “The Barbados Pharmaceutical Society believes that there should be a separation of the medical cannabis use from the medicinal cannabis industry.

“It is our opinion that they are two separate issues.

“The use of cannabis as medicine is already provided for and regulated in the various acts and legislations pertaining to medicine and especially those of pharmacy and these all fall under the Ministry of Health and Wellness.”

At the hearing, the pharmacy leader charged that Government was not conducting enough consultation with the medical fraternity before drafting the bill.

Government is essentially duplicating controls and runs the risk of the new controls for medicinal marijuana conflicting with existing laws governing drug use, she declared.

Gooding said: “We see areas of duplication between the existing acts and regulation and the proposed bill.

“I make reference to the Health Services control of drugs regulation and the drug abuse regulations in the Pharmacy Act.

“If medical cannabis use be rightfully positioned under the Ministry of Health then there would be issues surrounding which regulation takes precedence.”

She added: “We say separate medicinal cannabis use and let all matters pertaining to medicines such as prescribing and dispensing be governed by Ministry of Health and let all matters pertaining to preparation and cultivation of raw materials and active ingredients, research and development, be governed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

“There is already a prescribed manner in which pharmaceutical drugs are treated in Barbados; why must there be new specifications related to cannabis?

“What is so special about it?”

The BPS president said the nation’s pharmacists are no strangers to dispensing cannabis or cocaine-based medications. She claimed all the necessary oversight is in place with the existing structure to prevent abuse of drugs, contending that there was no to need re-invent the wheel.

“We already have all of the protocols for handling controlled drugs and we, therefore, [are] concerned that some of the broad terms in this bill can open the door multiple interpretations.