From skeptic of the local cannabis industry to a regional entrepreneur

Standing outside rows of medicinal cannabis plants at CannaSVG, the region’s largest licensed farm in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbadian entrepreneur Emmanuel Bria reflects on how much his perspective has changed.

“When we hear medicinal cannabis, even though I was initially opposed to the idea of such a thing as medicinal cannabis, for the simple fact that, well, the plant itself is a medicinal plant — which is true. The only problem is that if the plant is growing in a toxic environment, it is no longer medicinal. It is now a time bomb,” he explained.

Bria, who represents Summus Barbados, spoke to Barbados TODAY on Day three of Cannabliss SVG 2025 in St Vincent and the Grenadines as the conference went on the road to meet cultivators, manufacturers, and retailers. The hands-on experience, he said, challenged old assumptions and exposed the discipline required to build a genuine medicinal industry.

“The type of plant it is, it absorbs everything in its environment,” he explained. “When you test the actual bud itself, you can find different traces of elements — whether it’s in the water, toxicities, bacteria, or fungus. At that level you really can’t introduce it into the pharmaceutical arena for people who may not necessarily be recreational smokers but might actually be consuming the product for health reasons.”

That reality, he said, made him rethink everything he knew: “What you don’t want to do is, in an effort to cure one thing, create another thing. So that’s why they have that division but what makes the division, the division is the fact that the product is actually tested.”

Bria said being in the business underscored how vital testing and quality control are for a legitimate medicinal market.

“Cannabis is the kind of thing now that everybody’s talking about,” he said. “Everybody wants to get into cannabis, but the thing is, it’s about healing people and helping people who have serious needs. At that level, as far as on a recreational level, that’s a conversation that’s left to be discussed.”

For Summus Barbados, he added, the goal is to develop a clean, safe product that meets medical standards.

“It is introducing it into the market that’s open for individuals who may have chronic pains, post-surgery [pain], anxiety,” he said. “That is to make sure the product that’s coming in is a quality product that is grown in a sterile environment — fully organic, fully tested, consistently tested — to ensure that quality assurance is there.”

The experience, Bria admitted, was as much personal as professional: “The reservation I had initially…I had to unlearn some things, I had to relearn some things. I think that was, for me, the best thing, because I was fighting something I didn’t fully understand.”

Now his focus is on education — helping others in Barbados to understand the science and opportunity behind medicinal cannabis.

“At this point now, it’s about educating other people so we could take it to a whole different level,” he said. “It’s about healing people. That’s what it should always come back to….And yes, I know that there are some areas that we still got to iron out, but it’s a forward process. Once we continue to move forward, we’re gonna fix it, man. We’re gonna fix it. I give thanks.”

tracymoore@barbadostoday.bb