Interest in the medicinal cannabis industry continues to grow, officials said Tuesday, as they ramp up efforts to woo foreign investors to back the industry.
Officials of the Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority (BMCLA) and Invest Barbados made a pitch of the medicinal cannabis industry to potential investors during an online forum.
In addition to outlining the areas in which investment could be made, they also provided an update on the laws governing the industry.
BMCLA Chief Executive Officer Dr Shantal Munro-Knight reported that there were currently 78 applications made to the authority, 11 of which were under review at various stages.
Dr Munro-Knight did not disclose how many of those applications have been approved but said: “We have persons, for instance, who might be on hold because they have to provide some documentation. We have people who are pre-approved and moving through the system, we have persons who are awaiting inspection or undergoing an inspection of their facility in order to move to the other stage.
“We only launched January 18 of this year. So we only opened to applications on January 18 and we think that is fairly good that we have this amount of applications. Our applications, for the most part, span the spectrum of the eight-licence regime.”
The regime covers licences for research and development, laboratory work, import, export, transportation, cultivation, processing, and retail distribution of medical ganja.
Up to the end of March, there were some 45 applications. The time of application to approval and granting of the licence should take a maximum of four months, Dr Munro-Knight said.
Most of the applications were for cultivation and regional distribution licences, she added, but insisted that there was “a good spectrum of applicants across the licence regime”.
Individuals are able to apply to the BMCLA for licences with varying fees.
The regulation, which outlines the application procedures and requirements for all categories of licence, also imposes penalties of up to $500,000 and jail time for violations of the terms and conditions.
Before a licence is approved and issued, the authority is expected to carry out an inspection of the premises from which the applicant will operate or inspect the vehicle to be used to transport cannabis or medicinal cannabis products
Dr Munro-Knight gave an assurance that “once you come with all your completed documents we will guarantee a maximum of four months. If you were an investor who come and you have everything in place and you can do so within a month, we will move with you as quickly as you can”.
Pointing out there was “a fairly sophisticated automated process for our applications”, she disclosed that some of the investors were coming without some of the information required or with the wrong information.
The BMCLA chief said the automated system allowed for investors to know exactly at what stage their applications were during the process, adding that there was some level of hand-holding throughout the process as the BMCLA works closely with other public and private sector stakeholders to build out the industry, make Barbados a hub for research and development and improve the ease of business.
A national advisory committee has been set up to put forward recommendations on how to build out the industry.
Dr Munro-Knight declared: “We are also interested in innovation. We are small but we have big dreams and big vision so we are working and looking actively for public-private partnership that will push innovation in the industry,” adding that the BMCLA is working closely with the Ministry of Tourism to build out a medical tourism industry.
Robert Simmons, Global Services Manager at Dentons law firm, suggested that there was hope for the local banking industry not to lose correspondent banking relations as a result of accepting proceeds from legitimate cannabis-related businesses in the near future.
Making reference to the Safe Banking Act of 2021, which was recently passed in the US House of Representatives, Simmons pointed out that “this bill is supposed to generally prohibit federal banking regulators from penalizing depository institutions who would like to provide services to legitimate cannabis-related businesses”.
The bill is yet to pass the US Senate in order to become law.
“This has the effect of trickling down then also to banks in Barbados who use US banks as part of the correspondent banking relation,” said Simmons. “I think that would be a key ingredient when it comes to opening up the international banking sector.
“Looking at it from a financial perspective, the Safe Banking Act is certainly the keystone to it all from a banking perspective.”
Invest Barbados Chief Executive Officer Kaye-Ann Brathwaite said the medicinal cannabis industry has the potential to contribute significantly to the goal of diversifying the local economy while attracting global investment.
She stressed that there are some key factors that make Barbados a suitable location for investors to get involved in the medicinal cannabis industry, including the high quality of life, modern infrastructure and competitive tax regime.
“Barbados offers a variety of soil types and climate conditions which result in the growth of unique medicinal cannabis strains. There are sound regulatory standards and capacity for research and development,” said Brathwaite. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
